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Drug-fuelled parties helped ancient Andean rulers to hold power

Guests quaffed beer infused with hallucinogenic seeds, according to the detritus from a feast in what is now Peru.
A Chakipampa-style cup excavated from Quilcapampa

Beer for a feast might have been served to guests in this cup excavated in Quilcapampa, an outpost of the ancient Wari empire in the Andes. Credit: Luis Manuel González La Rosa, Justin Jennings/Royal Ontario Museum

Centuries-old plant remains suggest that beer spiked with a hallucinogenic drug played a crucial part in helping an ancient superpower to maintain political control over the Andes1.

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Nature 601, 300 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-00066-x

References

  1. Biwer, M. E., Yépez Álvarez, W., Bautista, S. L. & Jennings, J. Antiquity https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2021.177 (2022).

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