This paper (2011) establishes the hypothesis that the Selva Pascuala mural, a work of post-Paleolithic rock art in Spain, contains fungoid figures depicting neurotropic fungi, especially Psilocybe hispanica, a species that occurs in a neighboring region. The mural represents the first direct evidence for possible ritual use of Psilocybe in prehistoric Europe.

Abstract

“A Prehistoric Mural in Spain Depicting NeurotropicPsilocybeMushrooms? The Selva Pascuala mural, a work of post-Paleolithic rock art in Spain, contains fungoid figures herein hypothesized to depict neurotropic fungi, especially Psilocybe hispanica, a species that occurs in a neighboring region. This hypothesis is based on features of these figures related to fungal morphology, along with ethnographic analogy, and shamanistic explanations of rock art. If correct, this interpretation would support inference of prehistoric utilization of this fungus in the region. The mural represents the first direct evidence for possible ritual use of Psilocybe in prehistoric Europe.”

Authors: Brian P. Akers, Juan F. Ruiz, Alan Piper & Carl A. P. Ruck

Summary

Introduction

Ritual use of neurotropic fungi has been noted in several culture areas, most notably Mexico and Siberia. Archaeological artifacts from northwest Mexico and so-called mushroom stones from the Mayan Classic and Preclassic periods suggest usage of neurotropic fungi in Mesoamerica spanning more than 2,000 years.

Evidence of fungi being used in rituals in prehistory is scant, but there is rock art from Tassili, Algeria, and Pegtymel, Siberia.

The Selva Pascuala mural, a striking work of prehistoric rock art, contains distinctly fungoid pictographs, including a bull and 13 vertically oriented, stalk-like figures.

Ramón Vias suggested that the pictographs in Mexico might represent fungi, and this hypothesis was tested against data and analysis from archaeology and mycology.

The Site and Prehistoric Rock Art in Spain

The Selva Pascuala mural is one of two pictographic panels found at the Selva Pascuala rock shelter, which was discovered in 1918 by archaeologist E. Hernández-Pacheco. The site is located in the municipality of Villar del Humo, within the central Spanish province of Cuenca.

The rock art of Villar del Humo belongs to two major art styles: Levantine and Schematic. It is believed that both styles were produced by the same culture undergoing a long-term process of change, but others believe they reflect two consecutive cultures that coexisted and competed with each other.

Levantine and Schematic art are distinguished from Paleolithic rock art by their use of plain colors, their small scale, and their lack of large animals.

Paleolithic and post-Paleolithic styles of prehistoric art in the eastern part of the Iberian Peninsula display some similarities, highlighted by new discoveries in the last decade. Both traditions offer abundant evidence of magical or ritual functions, presumably based in symbolic meaning of the reduced number of animal species most often portrayed.

In recent decades, shamanistic interpretations of rock art have been proposed, involving altered states of consciousness or “archaic techniques of ecstasy”. The identification of neurotropic fungi in rock art is based in part on these explanations.

Antiquity and Dating of the Mural

Levantine art was formerly interpreted as Paleolithic, but archaeologists nowadays tend to place it in a post-Paleolithic context, after the Pleistocene. It contains scenes of horse domestication, indicating a Bronze Age cultural stage.

Recent research has indicated that Levantine art was likely produced in the Sierra de las Cuerdas around 6000 B.C.E., and that Schematic art appeared with the first Neolithic cultures.

Conclusions about the age of the Selva Pascuala mural are tentative. The bull is Levantine and the fungoid figures are Middle Neolithic.

Interpretation of the Mural and Mycological Identification

The Selva Pascuala mural is likely to have originated with more than one artist, as it has been re-elaborated over time. The main figures are in Levantine style, but there are also human figures in Schematic style.

The fungoid figures in the mural display individual differences of form, and two of them have a split or bifurcated base, which could be interpreted as legs.

Recent explanations for rock art based on ritualized trance or altered states, together with ethnographic analogies for use of Psilocybe and Amanita, suggest that the pictographs represent neurotropic fungi. Amanita muscaria was excluded because of its non-sinuous stipe and large, persistent annulus.

The mural pictographs are similar to those of the neurotropic fungus Psilocybe hispanica Guzmán, which is reportedly used recreationally in Spain for its neurotropic effects, especially by young people. The mural’s association with bovine dung also correlates with the identification tentatively suggested here.

A neurotropic fungus called Psilocybe semilanceata might be considered in light of the mural pictographs, but its pileus is different from the fungi depicted at Selva Pascuala.

Psilocybe hispanica has been found in the Pyrenees region, in alpine Pinus forests at 2,000 to 3,000 m altitude. However, it is likely that P. hispanica has a wider ecological distribution than is presently known.

Studies of the paleoclimate around Villar del Humo indicate that mature forests of Pinus species with some deciduous trees were well established during the era of the Selva Pascuala mural.

According to shamanistic explanations of rock art, Selva Pascuala probably reflects a similar context of neurotropic fungi consumption. This is the first direct evidence for possible utilization of Psilocybe in prehistoric Europe.

Discussion

There are other examples of Schematic style fungal depictions other than in Selva Pascuala, but how they relate to the mural is unclear.

Selva Pascuala’s mural seems to express the mythic link between the bull and mushrooms, which extends into classical Mediterranean history. The bull is also anthropomorphized as a variety of taurine monsters in Mithraism and Zoroastrianism.

If the identification of Psilocybe hispanica as the fungus depicted in the mural is correct, it may explain the mural’s combination of fungus and bovine, as well as other elements of the mural, possibly relating to the effects of Psilocybe upon humans.

Conclusion

We suggest that the Selva Pascuala mural likely depicts mushrooms, especially neurotropic fungi, but emphasize that this identification is tentative and contingent upon a shamanistic interpretation.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Gastón Guzmán, Florencia Ramirez-Guillen, Manuel Hernandez, Juan Francisco Jordán Montes, José Alfredo González Celdrán, and John Moeller for their support.

Prehistoric rock art from Marmalo and Castellón de los Machos (Villar del Humo, Cuenca) is described in several books, including The Shamans of Prehistory, Fine-resolution Upper Weichselian and Holocene palynological record from Navarre’s (Valencia), and Alonso, A. 1983 – 84.

Psilocybe aztecorum is a Mexican hallucinogenic mushroom with a long history in pre-Columbian art. It has been studied in great detail in several publications, including the Texas Tech University Press book Art and environment in Native America. In the late Paleolithic, artists created images of animals, plants and humans using tools and techniques that were similar to those used in modern art. Poyato, Ruiz, and Guillén investigated and valued the rupestre art of Villar del Humo, Cuenca, and Ruiz, Mas, Hernanz, Rowe, K. Steelman, and Gavira dated the oxalate crusts over the rock art in Castilla – La Mancha.

Samorini, G., Stevenson, A. C., Torregrosa, P., and M. F. Galiana have found the oldest representations of hallucinogenic mushrooms in the world in the Sahara Desert, Spain.