Plant hallucinogens, shamanism and Nazca ceramics

The ceramics of the ancient Nazca, an extinct people that lived on the south coast of Peru from 100 to 800 AD, are examined. It is suggested that plant hallucinogens and stimulants including Trichocereus pachanoi, Erythroxylon coca, Datura spp., and Anadenanthera peregrina were utilized in religious ritualism connected with shamanism, stressing personal ecstasy as a means of contact with the supernatural on the part of regional religious-political leaders. Shamanic themes linked to world-wide plant hallucinogenic ingestion are identified and summarized, and their representation in Nazca ceramic art delineated.