2nd Century BC Drug Vase Shows Ancient Egyptians Knew How to Party
A new analysis of a vase from ancient Egypt has revealed what we think everyone already knew: ancient Egyptians loved their psychedelics. The vase, fashioned in the likeness of the Egyptian party god Bes, contains a heady cocktail of hallucinogens and other mind-altering substances.
The study, headed up by Professor Davide Tanasi of the University of South Florida and published in Nature, involved a wide ranging and detailed assessment of just what substances made up the residue inside the vase, currently in the possession of the Tampa Museum of Art. The substances were subject to multiple tests to assess what they actually were.
Professor Tanasi and his team used cutting edge techniques, including proteomics, metabolomics, genetics techniques, and synchrotron radiation-based Fourier Transformed Infrared microSpectroscopy (yeah, we don’t know either). And there was a lot to find, apparently.
Inside the vase were bioactive, psychoactive, and medicinal substances including the poisonous Peganum harmala (wild rue), the hallucinogenic Nimphaea nouchali var. caerulea (a type of water lily) and some kind of Cleome, commonly called the spider plant. All three plants contain psychotropic compounds.
Also found in the vase were what appears to be saliva, as well as some kind of fermented liquid and royal jelly from bees. It seems that this potent cocktail of drugs and alcohol was passed around at Egyptian parties (all right, “rituals”) but frankly we can only guess at what the combined effect was like.
Bes is a very interesting figure, depicted as a grimacing dwarf and apparently used as a totem at Egyptian festivals. He is one of a pair of Egyptian gods of Nubian origin and is the god of the household, a protector of pregnant women, and also the patron deity of having a good time.
The vase dates from the second century BC, known as the Ptolemaic Period. By this time Egypt’s golden age(s) were long behind her, and it was under the Ptolemaic pharaohs that she would finally fall as an empire to mighty Rome.
Several such vases or mugs depicting Bes were long suspected of having a significant role in Egyptian rituals. With the confirmation of what was inside, we can now see exactly why they kept inviting Bes to their parties.
But there is a deeper, mythological connection to Bes in such a wild concoction, as the study outlines. In the Myth of the Solar Eye, the goddess Hathor is calmed from a violent rage by Bes serving her an alcoholic drink which has been spiked with drugs.
The drink was disguised and made to resemble blood but it apparently hit the errant goddess like a freight train, sending her into a deep sleep. The analysis of the vase in the study suggests that it was also made to resemble blood, suggesting that it was an attempt to recreate this divine beverage.
Bes was one of the longest-running Egyptian gods and we find such Bes vases throughout much of Egypt’s long history. Other gods may come and go, but so long as Bes kept producing the goods it seems he had a devoted fanbase and a place in Egyptian life.
Header Image: Bes vases were common in ancient Egypt, apparently for drinking a cocktail of alcohol and drugs made to resemble blood. Source: Tanasi, D., van Oppen de Ruiter, B.F., Florian, F. et al. Multianalytical investigation reveals psychotropic substances in a ptolemaic Egyptian vase. Sci Rep 14, 27891 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-78721-8 / Nature.
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