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When scientists analyzed DNA from a cup used by ancient Egyptians thousands of years ago, they discovered a concoction of psychedelic substances, bodily fluids, and alcohol.
Davide Tanasi, a professor at the University of South Florida, examined what are known as Bes mugs—cups that the ancient Egyptians left behind—using sophisticated chemical analysis.
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The head of Bes, an ancient Egyptian god or guardian demon revered for fertility, protection, healing, and magical purification, is adorned on the cups.
According to Branko van Oppen, curator of Greek and Roman art at the Tampa Museum of Art, historians have only ever been able to conjecture about the contents of the cups; some people think they were intended to carry “sacred” water, wine, or beer.
But in 1984, Prof. Tanasi and his research team found a mixture of psychedelic substances, body fluids, and alcohol by scraping the inside walls of a mug donated to the Tampa Museum of Art and using chemical and DNA analysis.
Based on the finds and written documents describing centuries-old traditions, he thinks the combination was employed in a magical rite reenacting an Egyptian myth, perhaps for fertility.
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He claimed that honey, sesame seeds, pine nuts, liquorice, and grapes were added to the mixture to give it a blood-like appearance.
“For the first time, we were able to identify all the chemical signatures of the components of the liquid concoction contained in the Tampa Museum of Art’s Bes mug, including the plants used by Egyptians, all of which have psychotropic and medicinal properties,” Professor Tanasi said.
“This research teaches us about magic rituals in the Greco-Roman period in Egypt,” Van Oppen stated.
“Egyptologists believe that people visited the so-called Bes Chambers at Saqqara when they wished to confirm a successful pregnancy because pregnancies in the ancient world were fraught with dangers,” he said.
“So, this combination of ingredients may have been used in a dream-vision inducing magic ritual within the context of this dangerous period of childbirth.”
Historians claim that the Bes Chambers at Saqqara were situated close to the Great Pyramids of Giza.
