Two thousand years before the Incas built their vast empire in the Andes, another society carved its identity into stone and smoke.
At the ceremonial center of Chavín de Huántar, nestled 10,000 feet high in the Peruvian mountains, archaeologists have uncovered hollow bone tubes that they believe are snuff devices. These hollowed bones hold microscopic traces of tobacco’s wild ancestors and vilca, a powerful hallucinogen related to DMT.
This is the oldest direct evidence of psychoactive plant use in the central Andes. But it gets even more interesting. According to the authors of a new study, these hallucinogenic sessions were important for maintaining the fabric of society.
“Taking psychoactives was not just about seeing visions,” said Daniel Contreras, an archaeologist at the University of Florida. “It was part of a tightly controlled ritual, likely reserved for a select few, reinforcing the social hierarchy.”
The Chavín and their belief
They’re known as the Chavín, and they thrived between roughly 1200 and 500 BC. Centered at Chavín de Huántar, a ceremonial complex carved into the mountains at 10,000 feet, the Chavín culture built monumental stone temples, intricate drainage systems, and underground galleries designed to dazzle the senses. They had complex art, including feline deities and geometric motifs. The Chavín people innovated in agriculture and ritual, spreading their influence (and possibly, ideology) over large distances.
Apparently, their influence also included some hallucinogenic substances.
“Chavín has been associated with psychoactive plants for decades, based on some of the representations in Chavín art (carved stone, mostly),” Contreras tells ZME Science.
Chavín de Huántar is marked by massive stone architecture and haunting underground galleries. It stands apart from its predecessors as it’s neither a humble village nor a brutal empire. It was a religious site.
Archaeologists have spent decades excavating. Over the years, they found musical instruments carved from seashells and stone sculptures with snarling fangs. They even found evidence of deliberate sensory manipulation — twisting tunnels, restricted light, and disorienting soundscapes. This latest piece, chemical residue in snuff tubes carved from llama and deer bones, was the missing ingredient.
Inside, researchers found nicotine from wild Nicotiana species and vilca, a psychedelic powder derived from the vilca tree. Indigenous cultures across South America have long used these plants for inducing visions, pain relief, and spiritual communion.
“It’s hard to know exactly what the effects would have been, since that’s conditioned not only by the substances but also by preparation, dosage, and individual body chemistry and mental state. What we can say is that they would have had some very tangible effects, which we argue would have really brought home the significance and power of the rituals in which people partook,” Contreras explains in an email.
Why this is uncommon
Many cultures across the Americas (and beyond) have used psychoactive plants in communal ceremonies. These were larger ceremonies where people could bond or communicate with the divine.
Meanwhile, the Chavín employed them in tightly controlled settings, accessible only to a select elite. These private, immersive rituals likely served to elevate religious leaders, giving them exclusive access to visions that validated their power and spiritual authority. In this way, they could turn a mystical experience into a tool of governance rather than community.
“These rituals, often enhanced by psychoactives, were compelling, transformative experiences that reinforced belief systems and social structures,” Contreras said.
Chavín’s society wasn’t built through violence. It was shaped by ideology. The elite created powerful ceremonies that made inequality feel natural — even necessary. They basically added inequality to their religion.
“One of the ways that inequality was justified or naturalized was through ideology,” Contreras said. “Through the creation of impressive ceremonial experiences that made people believe this whole project was a good idea.”
Plenty left to discover from this culture
This ancient culture left a rich legacy. Books have been written about it, Contreras says, and more will be. We don’t know what language they spoke or who they traded with. But, judging by their use of hallucinogens, they were quite unusual.
“There are plenty of other ceremonial centers, and some other evidence of use of psychoactives . . . but not of the two together,” Contreras noted.
Chavín wasn’t just a place of early statecraft or artistry. It was a stage for sensory manipulation, where smoke, sound, and stone turned belief into social glue, and where inequality was cemented into ritual.
The study “Pre-Hispanic Ritual Use of Psychoactive Plants at Chavín de Huántar, Peru” was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
