Archeologia koki

Psychoactive substances, most often of plant origin, have been used by people all over the world since prehistoric times as stimulants, antidepressants, medicines or aphrodisiacs. A large group of them – called in the literature on the subject as entheogens – were used to achieve altered state of consciousness, mystic and spiritual experiences during shamanic or religious practices. The article discusses various categories of archaeological evidence that could serve as arguments in the discussion about the use of various psychoactive substances by people of different cultures throughout the world. They include both material remains of plants themselves, of utensils to prepare, transport and administer such drugs, iconographic representations of these activities, or finally chemical and physical traces seen in the bones of people who used such substances. The main part of the article is devoted to the presentation of archaeological evidence for the use of coca leaves (Erythroxylum coca) in pre-Columbian cultures of the Andes. Because its leaves contain cocaine (crystalline alkaloid), the plant was – and still is – used as a natural stimulant facilitating life in the high mountains, it also played an important part in the system of traditional beliefs, rituals and traditional medicine. The authors of the article analyse a rich array of archaeological and bioarchaeological findings, iconographic material, and also of written sources and ethnographic analogies that testify to the wide use of coke in different cultures of ancient Peru.