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Mushroom head’ depiction shared by Sandawe (A) and Bradshaw (B) cultures. Extant Sandawe shamans testify that this depiction represents the subjective experience of a trance under the influence of magic mushrooms (Psilocybe spp.). We can validly assume that these identical icons have the same meaning in the Bradshaw culture, even though it is extinct, without extant human witnesses.
Source publication
Background: Interpreting the symbols found in the rock art of an extinct culture is hampered by the fact that such symbols are culturally determined. How does one break the circularity inherent in the fact that the knowledge of both the symbols and the culture comes from the same source? In this study, the circularity is broken for the Bradshaw roc...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... 'mushroom head' depic- tion is striking and unmistakeable and is found in both the Bradshaw and Sandawe (from the Kolo panels, near Kondo in Tanzania) rock art 12 but not in the Khoisan or Hadzabe rock art. Sandawe shaman witnesses testify that this depiction (Figure 1) represents the feeling that one can experience while in a psilocybin- induced trance. 13 Since the icon is identi- cal in both Sandawe culture and the extinct Bradshaw culture, we can infer that psilocybin-induced trances were a feature of both cultures and that trance might be evident in the rock art. ...
Context 2
... only other natural object in the Kim- Clinical and Experimental Optometry © 2011 Optometrists Association Australia berley that is even vaguely similar is the emu egg, the ovoid of which has a differ- ent, fatter, more symmetrical and much less variable outline without an acuminate end. An unusual depiction of baobab fruit forms a repeated pattern (Figure 8), with attached branches, that covers, or at least once covered before deterioration, a large area of the same rock wall on which are overpainted exquisite baobab trees loaded with pods ( Figure 10). The term 'frieze' seems appropriate to describe this large, regular decorative panel, in keeping with the extensive decorative panels that adorn ancient Greek structures, rather than 'tap- estry' or 'mosaic', which might also apply to repetitive artistic creations. ...
Context 3
... of four different baobab trees can be recognised in Bradshaw art by the characteristic fruit. Two are depicted in the 'dry season' phase ( Figure 10) when there are no leaves and abundant fruit. Two further trees are depicted in the 'wet season' phase when leaves are abundant and most fruit has fallen. ...
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... such depictions do not feature in the publications that detail Sandawe rock art, 29 my personal examination of the Kolo site revealed unmistakable baobabs, in keeping with the importance of the tree for this culture and its prevalence in that area (Figures 11 and 12). Adjacent to the baobab depiction was a figure with a parallel-fibre headdress. ...
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... this case, a particular point can be made because of a deep similarity between the depiction of the baobab and the depiction of the nearby parallel-fibre headdress. The simi- larity arises because the baobab is depicted a little figuratively, with parallel branches that are curved to follow the curved crown of the tree (Figure 11a). Because the nearest painted image to the baobab is a human figure with a parallel-fibre head- dress, and because the parallel fibres are similar in both cases, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the artist intended the comparison. ...
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... parallel-fibre headdresses occur in Bradshaw art ( Figure 12). It seems rea- sonable to assume these also represent a reference to the baobab. ...
Context 7
... 1 recognised that these depictions were united by the same object at their core, despite the variations in the decora- tions and the uniform reverentially sus- pended treatment of each. He called them Ceremonial Oval Objects, in which the oval resembles a boab pod (nut or fruit) more than any other natural object, including the fatter, less variable outline of an emu egg ( Figure 11). Walsh did not venture any opinion about their identity, which is obvious to me because of the many strands of the boab's wider context that might rec- ommend the approach taken here. ...
Context 8
... and Experimental Optometry 94.5 September 2011these headdresses are unmistakeable trees, such as the one shown in Figure 13. This example is taken from a site where there were four other figures with the same style of branched headdress. ...
Context 9
... visualisation of one's head being replaced by a mushroom is possible, what about a head replaced by the most significant species of tree? Fig- ure 13 shows what might be an example of this phenomenon, a dendrianthrope, which refers to a tree-human hybrid, just as therianthrope refers to a mammal- human hybrid. The branching in this depiction is so elaborate that the head, if it is present at all, is not visible and we might interpret this depiction as a dendrian- thrope rather than the figure with a tree headdress that first comes to mind. ...
Context 10
... new approach to dating of individual paintings uses microorganisms that have replaced the original paint. 8 This discov- ery helps explain how paintings can look young but be very old (infinite replenish- ment of the microorganisms is possible) and why radiocarbon and similar methods Figure 13. Tree-on-head depictions: Although we do not have the diagnostic outline of baobab fruit in these depictions, we are entitled to assume that the depictions represent baobabs. ...
Citations
... Obecnie żyjący szamani Sandawe twierdzą, że przedstawione na malowidłach naskalnych sceny reprezentują subiektywne doświadczenie transu pod wpływem magicznych grzybów z rodzaju Psilocybe spp. (Pettigrew 2011). Psylocybina, występująca w wyżej wspomnianych grzybach i w ponad 200 innych gatunkach, jest substancją biologicznie nieaktywną, ale w organizmie jest bardzo szybko przekształcana w psylocynę, która ma działanie zmieniające umysł, podobne w niektórych aspektach do działania LSD (dietyloamid kwasu lizergowego), meskaliny i dimetylotryptaminy (DMT). ...
Psychedelics most likely represent the oldest class of pharmacological compounds used by humans. The origins of the use of these substances will probably never be fully understood by us however, thanks to archaeological findings, we are able to learn about their history. These substances with the ability to induce states of altered perception were used a very long time ago to enhance mystical and religious experiences. They were taken by the Olmecs, Zapotecs, Mayans and Aztecs, among others. Today, in many parts of the world, research is being conducted into the use of psychedelics for a wide variety of medical conditions, but their form and capabilities are closely tied to the legislation of the countries concerned.
... For example, the oldest recorded art made by Neanderthals is believed to be approximately 65,000 years old, created on stalagmites in Cueva de Ardales, in southern Spain (Martí, 2021). The earliest evidence showing the intersection between bacteria and art dates back to around 46,000 to 70,000 years ago with the Australian Bradshaw rock art also referred to as the Gwion Gwion paintings ( Figure 1A), located on sandstones in the North-West Kimberly region of Western Australia (Pettigrew, 2011). ...
Living art made with bacteria is gaining global attention, spreading from laboratories into the public domain: from school STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics) events, to art galleries, museums, community labs, and ultimately to the studios of microbial artists. Bacterial art is a synthesis of science and art that can lead to developments in both fields. Through the 'universal language of art', many social and preconceived ideas - including abstract scientific concepts - can be challenged and brought to the public attention in a unique way. By using bacteria to create publicly accessible art pieces, the barriers between humans and microbes can be lessened and the artificial separation of the fields of science and art may be brought one step closer. Here, we document the history, impact, and current moment in the field of microbiologically-inspired art for the benefit of educators, students, and the interested public. We provide a comprehensive historical background and examples of ancient bacterial art from cave paintings to uses in modern synthetic biology, a simple protocol for conducting bacterial art in a safe and responsible manner, a discussion of the artificial separation of science and art, and the future implications of art made from living microbes.
... Psychedelics may be the oldest known psychoactive agents [6]. The earliest representation of psychedelics may be seen in the prehistoric rock art of Bradshaw in Australia and Sandawe rock art in Eastern Tanzania, where drawings of mushroom heads might have represented psilocybin use by shamans for religious rituals and mystical experiences [7]. Other similar rock arts of mushrooms depicting higher states of consciousness have been found in places such as Saharan Epi-Paleolithic paintings of the "Round Heads" phase, dated to 7000-5000, rock paintings of Fuente de Selva Pascal, Spain, dated to 6000-4000 BC, Bronze Age rock art of Scandinavia, England, and Southern France [8]. ...
Psychedelics might be the oldest psychoactive agents known used for inducing religious or mystical experiences. Their strong psychoactive effect was discovered accidentally in 1943 after the synthesis of Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) in 1937. These drugs became a mainstream area of research following the synthesis of LSD, however, several political and social factors led to their ban in 1966, after which research on psychedelics was limited. These drugs became a major topic of scientific and ethical debate in the 1990’s and the recent times have seen a ‘Psychedelic renaissance’ where the therapeutic value of psychedelics is being reconsidered. This article reports the historic perspective of psychedelics, pharmacologic action by 5-HT2A receptor agonism, psychological effects and compares the proposed therapeutic uses including uses in depression, PTSD, anxiety-related disorders, drug and alcohol addiction, neurodegenerative diseases and auto-immune diseases to potential harms including development of tolerance, hallucinogen persisting perception disorder and potential psychosis. An analysis of history, pharmacology, and comparison of benefits and harms lead to the conclusion that the potential therapeutic benefits significantly outweigh the potential harms thus further research and clinical trials need to be conducted across different countries and cultures for legal approval in clinical use.
... Psilocybin (4-phosphoryloxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine) is also one of the classical serotonergic psychedelics, producing a similar psychoactive effect to LSD and mescaline. It has a long history of use dating back to 10,000 bce, with rock-etched murals of the psychedelic in northern Australia depicting mushroom iconography [14]. In 1959, the Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman isolated the active ingredient, psilocybin, from the Psilocybe mexicana mushroom [15]. ...
The use of psychedelics as medicines and for overall better brain health is potentially one of the most transformative developments given their immediate and long-lasting therapeutic effects across a plethora of neuropsychiatric disorders and, more recently, some neurodegenerative diseases. The US psychedelic drugs market is forecasted to grow by 16.3% by 2027 due to the increasing prevalence of treatment-resistant depression and mental health disorders. Decades-long restrictions, which date back to when psychedelics were declared controlled substances in 1970, have been lifted to allow researchers to publish on the therapeutic benefits of psychedelics. This review will feature the incredible depth of research underway revealing how psychedelics impact brain structure and function to treat mental health and other neurological disorders.
... Mushrooms have been used in diet and for medicinal purposes since prehistory and in all continents. 29,30 Theophrastus (circ. BC 300) was probably the earliest to notice the fungi. ...
Non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a most important cause of liver disease. Similar to other non‐communicable diseases (NCD), such as obesity and type II diabetes mellitus, NAFLD can strongly affected by diet. Diet‐related NCD and malnutrition are rising in all regions being a major cause of the global health, economic and environmental burdens. Mushrooms, important dietary components since the hunter‐gathering communities, have increasingly gained momentum in biomedical research and therapeutics due to their interplay in metabolism traits. We emphasize here the beneficial effects of mushroom‐enriched diets on the homeostasis of lipid and sugar metabolism, including their modulation, but also interfering with insulin metabolism, gut microbiota, inflammation, oxidative stress and autophagy. In this review, we describe the cellular and molecular mechanisms at the gut‐liver axis and the liver‐white adipose tissue (WAT) axis, that plausibly cause such positive modulation, and discuss the potential of mushroom‐enriched diets to prevent or ameliorate NAFLD and related NCD, also within the shift needed towards healthy sustainable diets.
... Worldwide, different hallucinogens have been suggested as inspiring rock art making, such as mushrooms, Peyote, Datura, San Pedro cactus, Brunsvigia, and others (2,(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35). Datura is of particular focus in the North American West. ...
Significance
Proponents of the altered states of consciousness (ASC) model have argued that hallucinogens have influenced the prehistoric making of images in caves and rock shelters. However, the lack of direct evidence for the consumption of hallucinogens at any global rock art site has undermined the ASC model. We present the first clear evidence for the ingestion of hallucinogens at a rock art site, in this case, from Pinwheel Cave, California. Quids in the cave ceiling are shown to be Datura wrightii , a Native Californian entheogen, indicating that, rather than illustrating visual phenomena caused by the Datura , the rock paintings instead likely represent the plant and its pollinator, calling into question long-held assumptions about rock art and the ASC model.
... Psilocin is a partial 5-HT2A agonist, with little dopaminergic or noradrenergic activity [28••]. These mushrooms, known as 'teonanacatl', meaning 'God's flesh' [30,31], were used by the Aztec shamans, but also in Australia and in Eastern Tanzania [32] in healing ceremonies and in a variety of religious and divinatory rituals. Turton et al. [33] described the subjective experience of intravenous psilocybin, which included altered somatosensory, visual, auditory and proprioceptive sensations, perceptual changes and a variety of effects on cognition, mood, memory and spiritual or mystical experiences. ...
Purpose of the Review A significant increase in the number, type and availability of new psychoactive substances (NPS) with
dissociative and psychedelic potential has occurred worldwide over the last few decades. Psychedelic substances have historically
been used in order to achieve altered states of consciousness such as dissociative states.We aimed here at describing both a
large number of novel ketamine-like dissociatives and tryptamine/lysergamide/phenethylamine psychedelics available, whilst
describing the acute/long-term clinical scenarios most commonly associated with their intake.
Recent Findings An updated overview of the clinical and clinical pharmacological issues related to some of the most popular
NPS categories has been provided, describing both psychosis and remaining psychopathological issues related to them.
Conclusions Although the complex link between NPS and psychiatric illnesses is yet to be fully understood, NPS misuse is now a
significant clinical issue and an increasing challenge for clinicians working in both mental health and emergency departments.
... Psilocin is a partial 5-HT2A agonist, with little dopaminergic or noradrenergic activity [28••]. These mushrooms, known as 'teonanacatl', meaning 'God's flesh' [30,31], were used by the Aztec shamans, but also in Australia and in Eastern Tanzania [32] in healing ceremonies and in a variety of religious and divinatory rituals. Turton et al. [33] described the subjective experience of intravenous psilocybin, which included altered somatosensory, visual, auditory and proprioceptive sensations, perceptual changes and a variety of effects on cognition, mood, memory and spiritual or mystical experiences. ...
Purpose of the Review
A significant increase in the number, type and availability of new psychoactive substances (NPS) with dissociative and psychedelic potential has occurred worldwide over the last few decades. Psychedelic substances have historically been used in order to achieve altered states of consciousness such as dissociative states. We aimed here at describing both a large number of novel ketamine-like dissociatives and tryptamine/lysergamide/phenethylamine psychedelics available, whilst describing the acute/long-term clinical scenarios most commonly associated with their intake.
Recent Findings
An updated overview of the clinical and clinical pharmacological issues related to some of the most popular NPS categories has been provided, describing both psychosis and remaining psychopathological issues related to them.
Conclusions
Although the complex link between NPS and psychiatric illnesses is yet to be fully understood, NPS misuse is now a significant clinical issue and an increasing challenge for clinicians working in both mental health and emergency departments.
... Fig. 11c, d) and may thus represent plants use to make clothing and accoutrements. Pettigrew (2011) has argued that boab (Adansonia gregorii) seedpods are central to decorative dress. Another view is that some accoutrements represent animal skins (e.g., waist decoration in Fig. 11c). ...
The orthodox notion of agriculture cumulatively and inevitably developing from foragers' gathering practices is increasingly untenable. Recent archaeological, botanical and genetic research from Asia and Australia show precocious manipulation of plant resources that continue for millennia within a forager ideology and practice without culminating in ‘agriculture’. Australia's Kimberley is an especially productive research region with a wide range of environmental niches on a topographically varied landscape that has had human settlement spanning over the last 50,000 years. Previously characterised as ‘foragers’ until contact with travellers from Indonesia and then Europeans over the last few hundred years; new research questions this simplistic characterisation of Aboriginal people, and suggests instead a particularly complex and enduring set of people-plant relationships. This complexity is given material witness in the form of Kimberley rock art, which stands out globally in having an enormous body of direct and indirect depictions of plants, including: grasses, trees, tubers; pigment-soaked plants imprinted on rock shelter walls; anthropomorphism of plants; and plant-based material culture such as digging sticks, dilly bags, and wood-hafted stone axe. These are more than simple illustrations of a forager economic base. Instead, rock art is a primary record of long-term sophisticated physical and symbolic manipulation of plants that fits neither into the simplistic categories of ‘foraging’ or of ‘agriculture’. Rather, we have a society in which people actively chose not to pursue orthodox agriculture while according plants a central place in their lives.
... While this seems bizarre to most of us today, it should not be forgotten that there are still people of European descent who prefer to see African engineering achievements such as the Egyptian Pyramids and Great Zimbabwe as the work of aliens from outer space rather than the work of Africans. And, in Australia, some still seek to deny Aboriginal authorship of fine and early Australian art traditions (e.g., Pettigrew 2011;Wilson 2006). While such "exoticist" ascriptions have rightly been used to critique scientific and societal racism (e.g., Dubow 1995;Trigger 2006), it should be noted that such views have always been strongly opposed among academics, and it is unclear whether they have ever represented more than a minority societal view. ...
South Africa is unique in the contemporary world in that it uses indigenous rock art images in its major national symbols. For example, rock art appears at the heart of the national coat of arms and on all banknotes. One can judge whether a banknote is genuine by folding it and seeing whether the rock art lines up to create a coherent rock art panel. And, one can spend these banknotes at a highway service station on a take-out burger that comes in a rock-art-themed carton with rock-art-themed condiments. Or, one can get directions to a South African casino toilet by following rock-art-themed signage. One can also go to one of many tourist markets and find artists of European descent making a living out of selling artistic reproductions of South African rock art in the form of watercolors, jewelry, tea towels, T-shirts, candles, painted stones, and so on. Some of these uses of rock art are empowering, appropriate, and sensitive; others are crass, unethical, and overtly racist. This chapter explores the use of rock art in South Africa within its historical context since 1900.
