How long have humans been ingesting mind-altering drugs? This fascinating topic has important archaeological implications, because the consumption of drug plants and fermented beverages likely transcends all cultures in time and space. At the heart of this volume is the fundamental relationship people have with plants. Based on a 2012 symposium at the annual Society for American Archaeology meetings in Memphis, this volume is organized into 11 chapters (plus an introduction) examining the role of psychoactive substances in ancient cultures, dating as far back as 50,000 years ago. Combined, the chapters singularly focus on how people in the past have used mind-altering intoxicants for spiritual/religious, ceremonial, nutritional, and medicinal/healing activities. The chapters emphasize that intoxication should be understood as a fabric woven into the social life of ancient societies and that some forms of intoxication have been codified and/or mandated within specific social contexts. Each chapter offers fascinating insights into imbibing, snuffing, and smoking traditions from cultures on every continent (with Africa considered briefly in the introduction). Each chapter begins with an overview of the geographic, biogeographic, ecological, botanical, and/or ethnobotanical aspects of the plants that induce the altered state(s) of consciousness, followed by relevant archaeological evidence. One element that drives the volume, and the editor must be given credit for this, is the focus on contextualizing the data.

The volume is well written and well organized. No typos! Illustrations, when present (not all chapters have illustrations), are clear and useful. Similarly, the references cited in each chapter are relevant and current. The editor makes clear in his introduction that this volume is not complete, but it does offer the most up-to-date information on what archaeologists have recovered, identified, and analyzed regarding psychoactive substances from around the ancient world. Using the most advanced analytical techniques, each chapter provides clear pictures of how intoxicants, stimulants, opiates, and hallucinogens were used in such diverse settings as feasts, burials, and purification rituals, among other social events.

In his introduction, Fitzpatrick defines the term psychoactive and also raises the question of whether the term hallucinogen should be used when discussing the traditional applications of psychoactive substances. Fitzpatrick offers an alternative term, entheogen, which may be a more appropriate term given how peoples and cultures in the past may have perceived the effects of these mind-altering plants as generating a god/deity or supernatural forces within those who consume them. In the three chapters centered on the Old World, the authors discuss the presence of Cannabis in burials in central Eurasia (Chapter 1), consider the case of intoxicants in the Mediterranean region through a consideration of specialized Bronze Age ceramics (Chapter 2), and discuss early use of ephedra in Eurasia, including the remains of ancient pollen found in Shanidar Cave in northern Iraq dating back 50,000 years (Chapter 3). In the two chapters on North America, the authors outline the archaeological evidence for the prehistoric use of the four primary North American intoxicants—Ilex, Datura, peyote, and tobacco (Chapter 4)—and explore the role that individuals and intoxicants (Ilex) played in the mound-pond complex at Fort Center in south Florida during the last millennium BC (Chapter 5). In Mesoamerica and the Caribbean, the authors investigate the use of cohoba, a powdered hallucinogen, as an element of the dynamics of power before and after European contact in the Greater Antilles (Chapter 6), and consider iconography on pottery depicting imbibing in Late Classic (AD 600–900) Maya society (Chapters 7 and 8). Chapters 9, 10, and 11 focus on the mind-altering effects of different potions and brews with deep roots in South America, including ayahuasca, yagé, vilca, maize, and molle beverages.

I have only one minor criticism of the volume. There is no summary chapter. There is a substantial amount of (new) data presented in the chapters of this book, and an accounting of the main points would have been helpful. However, the introduction does provide some of this synthesis. Overall, the volume is very successful in advancing our understanding of the use of ancient psychoactive substances. Understanding the full scope and scale of this topic on a global level will take time. All of the authors, including the editor, readily acknowledge the need for more research and the use of advanced analytical tools (i.e., chemical analyses) to determine when and how people in the past sought to take mind-altering substances. This book is a significant first step in that direction.