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.”

The Florida Lottery offers several draw games for those hoping to win one of the available jackpots. Here’s a look at the winning numbers for games played on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024

Winning Powerball numbers from Nov. 18 drawing

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Midday: 5-2, FB: 3

Evening: 6-7, FB: 5

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TAMPA, Fla. – Brad Butler works long hours as a carpenter and home remodeler. He and his work partner spent three weeks and $6,000 of their own money updating a house in Dade City. But instead of getting paid for their work, they accepted a deal to rent the house at a discounted price of $1,400 per month for a year—because they could not find other options they could afford. After a year when the rent increases, they’ll look for other options. 

“I’m a very honest hard-working person, but it just doesn’t seem that the economy has it in it to make hard-working people successful right now,” said Butler.  “Prices have skyrocketed three times, I think. And just in this area.”

People who recently moved to the Tampa Bay area may not believe what houses used to cost. For example, in 1998, a three-bedroom waterfront home in St. Peterburg sold for $133,000. That was near the start of the tech boom, which helped ignite the housing crisis. 

Two years later, the tech boom crashed. Investors moved what was left of their fortunes into real estate, snatching up houses everywhere—but especially Central Florida. Real estate in our area had flown under the radar until the age of the internet revealed comparatively cheap homes (on or near the water) for the whole world to see. 

At the same time, banks lowered their standards—approving high-risk adjustable mortgages to high-risk buyers with lower credit scores— while investors flipped one home after another. Many starter homes got demolished and replaced by larger, more expensive homes—further reducing the supply of homes working class families could afford.  

Then, by 2008, those high-risk buyers stopped paying the soaring costs of the high-risk mortgages. Banks failed, the economy tanked and real estate dipped—but in the Tampa Bay area, houses still cost much more than they did ten years before. For example, the same house that sold for $133,000 in 1998, sold for $275k in 2009 at the end of the downturn.

The Great Recession and glut of foreclosures crushed home builders, reducing the supply of new homes as the economy recovered. 

“We did have a, a shortage of building for a while, especially in Florida after the market crash. You know, we were ground zero for the market crash. It took a long time for builders to get back online. A lot of builders went bust as well when that happened,” said St. Petersburg City Councilman Richie Floyd. 

Builders who kept going started building larger, more expensive homes for larger profits—increasing the shortage of starter homes. 

As millennials moved out on their own, they preferred urban living, which drove a movement from the suburbs to the spiraling costs of living in cities like Tampa, St. Pete, Clearwater, and Sarasota. 

Meanwhile, the government offered new tax credits for home buyers, and interest rates dropped. Warren Buffett advised his fellow mega investors to snatch up homes—saying he’d buy a couple hundred thousand himself if he could. They followed his lead by purchasing more houses, condos, and apartments across the nation—and Florida in particular. Large investors and corporations replaced small landlords and homeowners, and they charged soaring rents (especially in urban areas). 

Then President Trump signed new tax cuts on investment profits- fueling the real estate frenzy. 

Then the pandemic hit. Florida stood out for lifting lockdowns and restrictions before other states. That drove a flood of relatively wealthy newcomers eager to buy. 

“Post pandemic and during the pandemic, we saw this shift from high tax states to states like Florida, where people can work here and get the benefits of living here and that has only accelerated that challenge,” said Florida Policy Project and former Florida State Senator Jeff Brandes. 

A wave of hurricanes, a property insurance crisis, and a trend of millennials migrating south combined to burn working-class people who can’t find an affordable place to live- unless they really scrimp and live a long way from work. 

We don’t yet know the long-term impact of the Hurricanes Debby, Helene, and Milton. But studies like this one in Science Direct show hurricanes tend to drive Florida home prices up in the short term. 

“750 people are moving to Florida every single day. And there just isn’t enough housing being built to support that,” said Brandes. “And that’s kind of created the supply and demand challenge.”

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