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Centuries ago, were artists stoned to the gills when painting or engraving on cave walls? The possible use of intoxicants in the artistic process during prehistoric times was hotly debated in archaeological and anthropological circles, as was the meaning of the representations. It has never been proven one way or another.
Art created in Southeast Asia 60,000 years ago, glorious animal images from Paleo-Western Europe, and fairly recent rock drawings from the Americas might have different motifs – and meanings attributed to -. Some may whisper secret shamanic practices and perhaps others were created by bored teens with ocher in reserve. We can’t say that all were driven by the same impulses, but now, for the first time, researchers have proven the consumption of an intoxicant in a place where rock art was created: Pinwheel Cave, California, which had been used at the end of prehistoric times. and through the colonial period.
Archaeologists could not directly prove that the early Californians buzzed when decorating the cave. But they were able to demonstrate that the quid (bundles of chewed vegetable matter such as chewing tobacco quid) embedded in the crevices of the cave ceiling contained, among other things, the hallucinogenic agent datura.
The quids date from around 500 to 100 years ago. David W. Robinson of the University of Central Lancashire, England, and a large international team reported their findings in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Tuesday.
It is impossible to know centuries after the event if the users actually chewed their quids inside the cave and then, high like a kite, stuck the masticated material in the cracks in the ceiling. But it is plausible.
The authors note at length that native Californians, like the Chumash people (Malibu is a Chumash word), who have lived in the state for thousands of years, have used hallucinogens, including datura, to enter states of trance, regardless of the creation of art. The Chinigchinich people of Southern California have used the datura extensively in religious contexts, to name just two examples described in the article.
And now there is evidence of an early example of the practice in the context of a rock art site.
In fact, it appears that the intoxicant himself was sucked into the cave. A drawing of a pinwheel drawn on the ceiling resembles Datura wrightii, a flower with hallucinogenic properties. The artist also appears to have drawn the hawk, which is the datura’s primary pollinator: the design only has four legs instead of six but it has suitably buggy eyes, and also sports the telltale antennae and round body. .
The cave also contains ephemeral red paintings such as a circular figure, fragments, and there may be red dots on the cave ceiling. It’s all for the art.
Shamanic mystics and bad trips
The idea that rock art was produced in altered states of consciousness is a theory. The association of art with shamanism is a separate theory. Archaeologist David Whitley wrote that while native California rock art was created by different social groups for different purposes, the ethnographic record indicates that it depicts visions experienced by shamans in trance – and even selfies of rock art of the shamans themselves in otherworldly experiences.
Whitley adds that the hallucinations weren’t necessarily ecstatic: some could have been horrific. Bad trips are not the province of the hippies.
Acknowledging Whitley’s major contribution, the authors of the new article point out a catch: his theory suggests that the rock art sites were controlled by shamans who jealously guarded the access, but most of the rock art sites in southern California were used by the people, in the public domain
“Recent analyzes also suggest that the pictograms [in southern California, not in Pinwheel Cave] were probably not self-portraits of shamans in a trance, but rather iconographic stock images drawn from mythology and the personification of insects, animals, plants and astronomical elements like the sun, ”they write . And in our cave, there is the pretty datura flower, which looks a bit like a pinwheel when unfolding, hence the name of the cave.
It is this very floral image, highlighted in red, that suggests to the authors of the new article that while the cave users may have been fried, they weren’t drawing fabulous supernatural visions.
The nature of art calls into question various assumptions about rock art under the influence, say the authors – in other words, they are not sold on the theory that locals chew datura to get high, experience visions and draw them. .
Lead author Robinson points out that they are NOT saying art was NOT associated with shamanistic practices. “This terminology is very broad and depending on how you look at it you can present a case one way or the other,” he told Haaretz. “But what we do deduce is that the images were not the product of images seen in a trance, but images of the plant causing those trances, as well as perhaps its main pollinator. Likewise, the evidence suggests that this trance experience was not a private experience of the only male shaman at his private viewing quest site, but was group events performed in the context of a community site. Art has therefore served to codify the trance experience for the betterment of society, rather than simply reflecting the idiosyncratic experience of a single shaman.
Praising the article for its thoroughness, Professor Ran Barkai of Tel Aviv University, who had not been involved in the research, agrees that the painting resembles the datura flower.
“They provide direct categorical evidence that the plant was used in this cave for the purpose of achieving altered states of consciousness,” Barkai tells Haaretz – and if anything, he thinks they strengthen the case for the association of substances that change consciousness with wall art. There is no reason, he points out, to assume that the artist who created the flower and the hawk was not under the influence – and since the cave had been used for multiple purposes, one of them could have entered an altered consciousness.
Living the cave life
By the way, datura could be consumed in a variety of forms: making a potion, roasting the roots, eating the pretty flowers and seeds, applying to open wounds, or chewing, which is at least one way it was used in the cave. Pinwheel – in class. The analysis deduced that each quid contained a dose of hallucinogenic alkaloids, which would be obtained by chewing the thing or even sucking it. Presumably, the quids were used inside the cave and then stuck in cavities in the ceiling. Archaeologists have identified 56 of these quids, but note evidence suggesting there were many more.
Locals definitely used the cave for group activities, according to archaeological evidence. “Evidence from the site clearly shows that they spent a great deal of their time in the cave directly under the art: making tools, preparing, cooking and eating food, possibly using the site for storage. Robinson explains. “Evidence includes the making of projectile points (arrowheads) and the basic stone material (food utensils), which point to both men and women doing ordinary work in the cave.
While it is likely that the cave and the nearby rock mortar complex were used by several family groups, it was not the main village. It was a seasonally occupied site, used as a base for hunting and gathering activities in the local environment.
The main sites in the village were located further down the canyons, a day’s walk away, Robinson adds.
Ergo, whatever that indicates, the use of datura did not mean that the site was off limits to everyone except shamans. Perhaps, the authors suggest, the painting of the flower served to express knowledge about the datura plant for a community experience.
In a crevice in the ceiling, researchers found no less than 10 pounds – theoretically representing 10 individuals. Could it be the remains of a group initiation ceremony, for example? Ethnographic evidence suggests that native initiates were given a datura potion to drink, not a quid to chew on, the authors say, adding that locals may have had their own version of the initiation rites. Also, they point out that the flower image had been touched up from time to time – kept fresh, so to speak. It was not the vision of a single artist caused by diving into the datura.
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