6,000-Year-Old Mural Portrays Earliest Use of “Magic Mushrooms” in Europe

Depending on who you ask, “magic mushrooms” could be considered a genetic anomaly, an illegal substance, or “God’s gift to man.” Regardless of what you think of it, scientists and archaeologists alike have pondered just how far back their use goes. A cave in Spain may very well hold that answer.

A mural in a cave outside the town of Villar del Humo depicts a bull headed towards a row of thirteen small mushrooms. These mushrooms, according to Brian Akers of Pasco-Hernando Community College and the Ecological Institute of Xalapa’s Gaston Guzman, could be Psilocybe hispanica. Psilocybe hispanica contains psilocybin, which provides the “magic” for magic mushrooms.

According to Akers, the mural’s depiction of the mushrooms is very close to the mushroom in question. If this is indeed the case, it would imply that Europeans were using magic mushrooms as far back as 4,000 B.C.

If the Europeans use of hallucinogenic mushrooms goes back thousands of years, it would certainly explain all that balderdash about dragons, that’s for sure.

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