Running Bear
Rising Star
Do you believe that are ancestors such as the ancient egyptians and Greeks figured out a way to extract pure dmt? If so how do you think they would have done it?
Squatting Bear said:I wonder if there is a natural way they could have extracted dmt. I guess it really doesn't matter.
There is actually quite a bit of evidence for use of freebased tryptamines in South America.Smoking pipes from NW Argentina and associated Anadenanthera seeds, dated to c. 2130 B.C., and snuff trays and tubes from the central Peruvian coast (c. 1200 B.C.), represent the most ancient use of psychoactive plants in South America. Chavin (c. 1000-300 B.C.), one of the most complex cultures during the formative period in Precolumbian Peru, clearly displays imagery directly related to psychoactive plant use in public monumental stone sculpture and architecture. San Pedro de Atacama, located in the desert of northern Chile, is the region with the most intensive use. Approximately 20-22% of the male population was using snuff powders between the third and the tenth centuries A.D. The great antiquity and its presence throughout the Central Andes, suggest an important role for psychoactive plants in the development of Precolumbian Andean ideologies.
pitubo said:Why should I believe this? What if ancient aliens just gave it to them? Considering that neither option is supported by any form of evidence, I see them as equally likely.
I thought about giving a more extensive answer, but it was about bedtime when I made the posting, so I kept it a bit terse with an admittedly hyperbolic reductio ad absurdum.Squatting Bear said:Do you believe that are ancestors such as the ancient egyptians and Greece figured out a way to extract pure dmt? If so how do you think they would have done it?
Squatting Bear said:Do you believe that are ancestors such as the ancient egyptians and Greece figured out a way to extract pure dmt? If so how do you think they would have done it?
Alkaloids were known in ancient times because they are easy to extract from plants and some of them have powerful and deadly effects. Any plant contains thousands of chemical compounds, but some plants, like deadly nightshade, can be mashed up and extracted with aqeuous acid to give a few compounds soluble in that medium, which precipitate on nuetralizaton.
There were many extraction techniques used by ancient cultures. Some of these included:
Soaking plant parts in boiling water
Pressing flower petals, roots and leaves into fat ("enfleurage" )
Cold-pressing by grinding and then pressing the rinds of fruit to extract the oils
Soaking in alcohol
Steam Distillation by passing steam through the plant material and condensing the steam to separate the oil from the plant.
Essential oils extraction done through goat fat were then placed in ancient Egyptian evaporation dishes for fragrancing chambers associated with sacred rituals and religious rites.
The ancient Arabians were another early culture that developed and refined a process of distillation.
They perfected the extraction of rose oils and rose water, which were popular in the Middle East during the Byzantine Empire (330 A.D. - 1400 A.D.).
Dreamor042, notwithstanding the walk-in vaporizer technology that I surmised, I remain wholly unconvinced of antique chemical procedures to isolate dmt. Certainly I am not overwhelmed by the suggested evidence.dreamer042 said:I'd say the hypothesis that ancient cultures had the ability to ingest dimethyltryptamine via vaporization is fairly well supported by the scant evidence available.
dreamer042 said:Is it really reasonable to assume that cultures that figured out how to extract metals from ores, make pottery and glazes, ferment wines and beers, extract plant essential oils, render soap, make glass, and create alloys would have missed vaporizing acacia resin?