Florida professor finds evidence that ancient Egyptians drank hallucinogenic cocktails

A professor at the University of South Florida (USF) analyzed a 2,000-year-old Egyptian mug and discovered that the ancient object once held a psychedelic concoction used in a magical ritual. 

The mug studied was an Egyptian Bes mug donated to the Tampa Museum of Art in 1984. The mug is one of few still in existence. 

Research into the rare mug began in 2021, USF professor Davide Tanasi told Fox News Digital via email. 

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These mugs displayed the head of Bes, according to the press release.

Many of Bes’ worshipers were ancient Egyptian newlyweds, according to the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, as the god of fertility and childbirth.

Tanasi and his team scraped a sample of tiny particles from inside the vase to analyze. 

The team originally thought the vessel would have contained an alcoholic beverage, but what they ended up finding was far different from their original theories.

Advanced DNA and chemical analysis found the vase contained what Tanasi described as a “cocktail” of different components. 

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Included in the mix was an alcoholic base, Tanasi told Fox News Digital, with flavoring agents like honey and or royal jelly sesame seeds, pine nuts or oil from Mediterranean pine and licorice.

Also included in the mix were several different medicinal and psychotropic substances, including Syrian rue, blue water lily and cleome species, Tanasi said.

The analyzed mug was donated to the Tampa Museum of Art in 1984. (Fabiola Santiago/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images/File)

Human fluids including blood, breast milk and mucus were also part of the concoction, according to Tanasi. 

The bodily fluids in particular served as a large indicator that the mix was used in ancient ritual practices, according to the research. 

“It was then a magical potion, meant to inebriate, satiate and induce hallucinations,” Tanasi said of the mixture. 

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This first-of-its-kind finding provides physical evidence that mirrors written records and myths about ancient Egyptian rituals. 

“At this point, we believe that the psychotropic substances found in it were used for ‘incubation rituals’ connected with the cult of Bes,” Tanasi told Fox News Digital. 

A drinking vessel is shown in the shape of Bes’ head. (Tampa Museum of Art/Philip LaDeau)

“Incubation rituals are religious practices where people sleep in a sacred space to receive a dream from a deity that may provide healing or an oracle,” Tanasi said. 

“In [the] Greek cult of Asklepios, god of medicine, sick worshipers had to spend the night in the sanctuary and wait to be visited by the god curing them during their dreams. Those dreams were triggered by drugs (pharmaka) dispensed by the priests. So, our research confirms an earlier practice that has later comparisons in several other cultures.”

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The mug is now on display at the Tampa Museum of Art as part of its “Prelude: An Introduction to the Permanent Collection” exhibit.

As far as further research goes, Tanasi said he hopes similar analysis continues.

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“To prove that the concoction that we found was the base recipe for a standard beverage administered during the rituals in honor of Bes, we plan as [a] next step to hopefully carry out the same analyses done on the example from the Tampa Museum of Art on other examples of [the] Bes Mug, kept at the Allan Pierson Museum in Amsterdam,” he said.

These, he added, “were produced with the same mold used for the Tampa one, to assess whether there was one and only recipe for this magical potion for Bes.”