A group of researchers from Florida and Italy recently discovered trace amounts of a hallucinogenic concoction in an Ancient Egyptian drinking mug in the Tampa Museum of Art’s permanent collection. The mug in question depicts the deity Bes, worshipped as a household protector of mothers, babies, and children throughout pregnancy, labor, and infancy and believed to ward off predators, illness, and evil spirits.
At four and a half inches tall (~11.4 cm), the Bes mug was donated to the Tampa Museum of Art in 1984 alongside 45 other Ancient Egyptian objects from the collections of David S. Hendrick III, and is tentatively dated to the 2nd century BCE. The piece is currently on display as part of the museum’s exhibition Prelude, and a three-dimensional virtual model created by University of South Florida (USF) researchers can be viewable online.
USF professor and contributing researcher Davide Tanasi, who conducts residue sampling on various antiquities, offered his services to the museum’s collections when Branko van Oppen de Ruiter — the museum’s curator of Greek and Roman art and a co-author of the study — suggested that they focus on the Bes mug. In a lecture about the team’s findings, van Oppen de Ruiter explained that scholars have been speculating about what these vessels were used for — be it medicinal, ritual, culinary, or quotidian purposes.
A variety of chemical, DNA, and spectroscopy tests on the organic residue scraped from the inside of the mug yielded evidence of wheat, sesame seeds, and yeast, which indicate that it most likely contained a fermented liquid, possibly an early iteration of beer. Tests also identified trace amounts of a pine nut or pine nut oil derivative, chemicals attributed to either grapes or pomegranates, proteins found in honey (or royal jelly), and an acid prevalent in the root of the liquorice plant.
However interesting the cocktail sounds so far, the Ancient Egyptians took it even further. Pharmacological compounds that were detected include a hallucinogenic plant called Syrian rue or harmel (peganum harmala), which is known to induce dream-like visions, act as an analgesic, and has a documented history of inducing labor and being used as a natural abortifacient. Per the researchers, the plant was known as besesa to Ancient Egyptians, interpreted as “plant of Bes.”
Also detected were trace samples of blue water lily, also called the Egyptian Lotus (while not actually being part of the lotus family), known for its mild, intoxicating and sedative properties. During his lecture on the findings, van Oppen de Ruiter points to the water lily as the possible plant on which the mythological “lotus-eaters” from Homer’s Odyssey subsisted.
The researchers also detected human blood, human breast milk, and fluids from mucosal membranes (not specified whether oral or vaginal).
“Maybe you can understand now why there were so many flavors added to it, because some of these ingredients didn’t taste very good,” van Oppen de Ruiter opined.
The researchers concluded that the inclusion of human bodily fluids made the cocktail less of a candidate for daily consumption, and more likely reserved for either festive celebrations or rituals possibly centering fertility and childbirth or divine inspiration.
“Religion is one of the most fascinating and puzzling aspects of ancient civilizations,” Tanasi said in a press statement about the findings. “With this study, we’ve found scientific proof that the Egyptian myths have some kind of truth and it helps us shed light on the poorly understood rituals that were likely carried out in the Bes Chambers in Saqqara, near the Great Pyramids at Giza.”
