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LiveScience
LiveScience
Tom Metcalfe

Ancient artists high on hallucinogens carved dancer rock art in Peru, study suggests

A new study notes similarities between the ancient rock carvings at Toro Muerto and drawings made in the 20th century by Amazonian Tukano people under the influence of the hallucinogenic drug ayahuasca.

Ancient rock carvings in southern Peru could have been made by people high on hallucinogenic drugs, a new study suggests.

The carvings likely portray dancers and are featured on more than 2,000 boulders in the dry gorge of Toro Muerto (Spanish for "Dead Bull") in the valley of the Majes River. They are thought to be between 1,400 and 2,100 years old. Archaeologists think many were carved between 100 B.C. and A.D. 600 by the Siguas people, who were influenced by the Nasca (or Nazca) culture of southern Peru that made the famous geoglyphs in the desert of the same name.

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