ANCIENT EGYPTIAN FERTILITY RITUAL INCLUDED DRINKING HALLUCINOGENS FROM A HEAD-SHAPED VESSEL

Many cultures have turned to religion for support and answers regarding fertility throughout history. The Aztecs had at least a few gods associated with these matters, whereas the Romans had the god Ceres. But in Egypt, people appear to have gone above and beyond to secure their families and society's future. Recently, researchers discovered that during pregnancy and childbirth rituals, they probably prepared a vision-inducing mixture that contained body fluids and hallucinogens.

This discovery was made after a group of researchers, under the direction of Professor Davide Tanasi of the History Department at the University of South Florida, scraped the inside of a Bes mug and subjected the sample to several chemical and DNA analyses. Bes mugs are ceramic vessels from ancient Egypt that date back to the 16th century BCE and the 5th century CE. Bes, a goddess associated with fertility, protection, healing, and magical purification, is the source of their name.

The study's vessel, which is from the Ptolemaic period (323 to 30 BCE), is housed at the Tampa Museum of Art. The god with big eyes, a crown of feathers, and a protruding tongue is depicted in the Bes mug, a head-shaped jar. Although scholars have long been unable to determine their purpose, they have conjectured that they were employed in mysterious rites at the well-known funerary complex of Saqqara. 

These rites are thought to have been carried out in the Bes Chambers, which are rooms in this complex. Nevertheless, up until now, the scholarly community's beliefs were not well supported by tangible evidence.

According to Branko van Oppen, curator of Greek and Roman art at the Tampa Museum of Art, "Egyptologists have been speculating for a very long time what mugs with the head of Bes could have been used for, and for what kind of beverage, like sacred water, milk, wine, or beer." "Experts were unsure whether these mugs were used in religious rituals, everyday life, or magic."

Alcohol, psychedelic drugs, and bodily fluids like blood, mucous fluids, and breast milk that would be used in a magic ritual were all found in the residues. Honey, sesame seeds, pine nuts, liquorice, and grapes were added to flavour it, giving the mixture a blood-like appearance. According to the researchers, it was probably used for fertility and was reenacted from an Egyptian myth.

According to Van Oppen, "This research teaches us about magic rituals in the Greco-Roman period in Egypt." Because pregnancies were dangerous in the ancient world, Egyptologists think that people went to the so-called Bes Chambers at Saqqara to ensure a successful pregnancy. Therefore, during this risky time of childbirth, this mixture of ingredients might have been used in a magic ritual that caused dreams.