TAMPA, Fla. — A University of South Florida professor believes he has solved a mystery that left historians wondering for years: What did ancient Egyptians drink out of Bes mugs?
Through advanced chemical analyses, USF professor Davide Tanasi confirmed the ingredients included alcohol, flavoring, bodily fluid and hallucinogens.
The Bes mugs are adorned with the head of Bes, an ancient Egyptian god said to protect pregnant women. Only a few mugs are still in existence.
But the Tampa Museum of Art has one in its collection from a donation in 1984.
“It has always been speculated that they were used in some sort of ritual. That gets you excited (as a historian),” said Branko van Oppen, curator of Greek and Roman art at Tampa Museum of Art. “What kind of ritual would that be?”
Tanasi, a USF history professor and the director of the school’s Institute for Digital Exploration, said he believed he could use technology to help answer what he called “a remarkable mystery.”
To do it, he used a scalpel to scrape the bottom of the Bes mug. He then very carefully and slowly collected powder from inside. He said ancient pottery is known to be coarse and rough, which allows material to get stuck in pockets where it can remain preserved for a long time.
A lab test — a joint effort between researchers at USF and colleagues in Italy at the University of Trieste and the University of Milan — confirmed the ingredients:
- Alcohol (beer or wine)
- Flavoring (honey, sesame seeds, pine nuts and licorice)
- Bodily fluid (mucus, blood, mother’s milk)
- Psychedelic drugs
“I think the concoction out of the Bes mug were used for a religious ritual,” Tanasi said. “They could use magic, religion and actual drugs to help people in need.”
Tanasi hopes to test other Bes mugs to look for consistency in the ingredients.