Human use of psychoactive substances has a long and complex history that has been documented in the archaeological record from as early as the Neolithic period (Guerra-Doce Reference Guerra-Doce2015). This exciting new field of archaeological research has potential to shed light on many approaches to human behaviours in the past, particularly those focused on ritual practice, phenomenology and human–environment interactions. This edited volume addresses such topics and raises intriguing questions concerning the exploitation and processing of substances that alter cognition, perception, mood and behaviour.

Representing a starting point for archaeological research on ancient psychoactive substances, the volume presents new evidence of the temporal and geographic distribution of mind-altering substances, drawing from archaeological, palaeobotanical and ethnohistorical records of Eurasia, North America, Central America and South America. It is the first major study on ancient psychoactive substances that takes on such a global scale, spanning over three millennia and four continents. It is not intended to be a comprehensive review of ancient psychoactive substances, but rather to present the current state of research through 11 stand-alone case studies that investigate different aspects, contexts and types of mind-altering substances. The chapters function independently and are set within a loosely comparative framework that is organized geographically, beginning with Eurasia. This organizational scheme, in privileging geography over methodology, misses an opportunity to create dialogues among studies that utilize similar approaches to ancient psychoactive substances. Instead, the research questions, methods of analysis and scope of each contribution vary significantly from chapter to chapter. As a result, the presentation of the volume overall is somewhat disjointed, jumping between broad, multi-regional studies and focused, context-specific analyses. Despite the uneven presentation and scope of the chapters, two main themes stand out that unite the otherwise disparate studies to create a coherent work on ancient psychoactive substances. First, the contributions primarily focus on inebriants, stimulants, narcotics and hallucinogens that are consumed today, such as alcohol, tobacco, cannabis and opium. This strategy links practices of substance use in the past and present, particularly through analysis of ethnographic and historical records which provide an enriching set of evidence that deepens understanding of the archaeological data.

The second major theme running through the volume is the role of intoxicating substances in practices of ritual and religion. In the introduction, Fitzpatrick and Merlin underscore the significance of mind-altering drugs in contexts of ritual practice, proposing that the terms ‘hallucinogen’ and ‘psychedelic’ be replaced by ‘entheogen’, a substance that generates close interaction with deities or supernatural forces (p. 2). According to many contributing authors, ingestion of entheogens indeed revolved around rituals ranging from funerary practices to feasting. This approach is demonstrated in a number of insightful contributions, drawing from different perspectives and methodologies such as Merlin and Clarke's broad study of Cannabis in Central Eurasian burials (chapter 1). In chapter 5, Thompson and Pluckhahn take a holistic approach to stimulants and hallucinogens in mortuary rituals at the mound-pond complex of Fort Center, Florida. In chapter 10, Sayre integrates multiple forms of evidence, including iconography, contextual analysis and palaeobotanical data to evaluate critically the use of the psychoactive vilca plant in ceremonial contexts of the preconquest Andes. In chapter 11, Jennings and Valdez adopt a chaîne opératoire approach to maize and molle brewing in the prehistoric Andes, elucidating the processes of consumption, production and exchange of these fermented beverages. Several of these contributions examine the political and social roles of intoxicants in ritual events, contextualizing the relationship between psychotropic substances and social organization. For example, in chapter 7, Seinfeld's analysis of gender hierarchies in ancient Maya visual culture deepens engagement with ritualized alcohol consumption and its implications for understanding Maya social identities. The study utilizes painted vessels that depict narrative scenes illustrating gendered behaviour in which excessive alcohol consumption by men relied on sober assistance from women, an argument which is further supported by observations of early Spanish colonist Diego de Landa. The vessels’ narrative scenes demonstrate a consistent pattern in which elite men's use of psychoactive substances, as gateways to the divine, was privileged over women's access to these inebriants during the same ritual events. The study argues that ‘intoxication events conform to a wider pattern of denying women equal access to political and ritual power among the Classic period Maya elites’ (p. 191). In considering how ritualized intoxication serves as a setting for performing and reifying gender identities, this contribution adds nuance to a field that is still largely concerned with establishing the basic chronological and geographic parameters of ancient psychoactive substances.

While serving to link the volume's contributions thematically, this ritual-driven approach to psychoactive substances is not without its interpretative challenges, particularly when the archaeological record is sketchy for reasons of diagenesis, incomplete documentation, or inadequacies of past excavation methods. The correlation of psychoactive substances with religion and ritual risks presenting a myopic vision of drug use in the ancient past and can be problematic when such conclusions rely on weak supporting evidence. Moreover, one needs only to consider consumption of cannabis and alcohol in contemporary western culture in order to find pertinent counter-examples to the ritualized usages of inebriants in therapeutic and medical contexts, as well as for recreation, celebration, or even for personal transformation and spiritual journeys (Ferrara Reference Ferrara2016; Pollan Reference Pollan2018; Richards Reference Richards2015). Puzzlingly, several authors acknowledge, but dismiss, historical and contemporary uses of psychoactive substances, preferring to advance a universal model of ritualized consumption (Fitzpatrick & Merlin, pp. 2, 5–6; Merlin & Clarke, p. 24). In chapter 1, Merlin and Clarke argue for ritual as the normative mode of consumption of Cannabis in Eurasia despite their five-page discussion of ‘not strictly religious or ritualistic’ uses of the same drug in Central Asia and western China documented in historical sources c. 2000 years ago (pp. 31–6). The universalizing nature of this paradigm dilutes our understanding of the multivalent usages of psychoactive substances in the ancient past.

Alongside the focus on ritual is also an assumption that the presence of material culture associated with psychoactive drugs indicates use of a drug for its mind-altering effects, even with few ways to measure potency and dosage. Certain stimulants such as tobacco are mild in their effects and are challenging to compare with potent narcotics and hallucinogens that may induce visions or deeply alter perceptions and cognition. Questions of drug efficacy aside, methodological issues weaken the case for psychoactive drug use in studies which rely primarily on the presence of material culture or palaeobotanical remains as evidence of psychoactive drug use. In the former case, it should be pointed out that paraphernalia such as pipes, bowls and braziers can be multi-functional and distributed widely, requiring a strong contextual case in order to link such materials with practices of consumption. As is made clear throughout the volume, the limitations of archaeological data present significant challenges in regard to material culture and provenience, making it difficult to link material remains with practices of consumption. Similar challenges apply to the palaeobotanical evidence. Remains such as poppy seeds, hemp fibre and seeds and the woody parts of Ephedra are inert and/or unprocessed parts of psychoactive plants. Such materials may be used for a range of purposes, including as food, textiles and fuel, and do not necessarily point to psychoactive drug use when found in archaeological contexts. This important nuance is missed in Merlin's study of Ephedra in Eurasia and the Americas (chapter 3). The study presents several inconclusive cases in which remnants of Ephedra, both its pollen and woody parts, may be linked to ritual and medicinal uses of this stimulant. For instance, Merlin appears to accept the hypothesis that Ephedra pollen grains found in Palaeolithic Neanderthal burials at Shanidar IV cave (Iraq), which may have been naturally deposited, carry ‘religious implications’ (p. 76). This claim is based on evidence that is of questionable relevance, drawn from the geographically distant Neanderthal site of El Sidrón, Spain, as well as the temporally remote practice of Zoroastrianism, a Middle Eastern religion first documented tens of thousands of years later than the Shanidar cave burial (pp. 74–8). Although presenting the evidence as ‘putative’ (pp. 74, 78), this flawed argument conflates different lines of anachronistic evidence, undermining more than supporting the case for Ephedra as a psychoactive substance in the Palaeolithic period.

The volume's strongest contributions critically evaluate the limitations of the evidence, cautioning against interpretive leaps linking the presence of certain plant and material remains to their use in rituals as mind-altering drugs. For example, in her study on psychoactive substances in the eastern Mediterranean, Chovanec (p. 62) warns us

In several studies, problematic or incomplete data are leveraged cautiously to overcome these interpretive issues to some extent. In chapter 8, Loughmiller-Cardinal's practice-centred analysis of the social and performative roles of drinking and beverage production bridges the gap between material culture and behaviour. She incorporates iconography and material culture to deepen understanding of ceremonial contexts of beverage consumption in Mesoamerica. Another such case is found in Kaye's critical analysis of drugs and power in the Caribbean (chapter 6). The study relies on paraphernalia such as spatulas, effigy figures, tubes, spouted bowls and duhos, a type of carved wooden seat used during rituals. She acknowledges that the collection largely lacks secure contextual information, rendering ‘any conclusions about context … highly speculative’ (p. 165). However, using the available evidence to its greatest extent, Kaye teases out plausible, if not definite, distribution patterns. She carefully correlates effigy figures, duhos and inhalation tubes with ritually significant settings of ‘caches, caves, and water-related loci’ (p. 168) in contrast with spouted bowls, which are found in occupational debris and middens (pp. 165–70). These studies indicate that as more evidence of drug use in the past comes to light, a more nuanced understanding of the motivations, experiences and settings for such intoxication will complicate human relationships with the altered mind.

The role of psychoactive substances in culture, ritual and art has a long and complex history that has raised more questions than answers. Ancient Psychoactive Substances serves as a gateway to the opaque world of ancient drug use, offering a set of studies that expands knowledge of drug use in the past and pushes forward the boundaries of archaeological research. Despite weaknesses of the archaeological data and several cases of over-interpretation of the evidence, the volume's 11 case studies create a critical and substantial new corpus of evidence for a growing field of research. This interdisciplinary volume presents a solid framework for evaluating the roles, social settings and cultural significance of psychotropic substances in the ancient world. A seminal work in the emerging field of ancient psychoactive substances, it will play a major role in shaping the future direction of archaeological studies on plant drugs and fermented beverages.