Noin-Ula Xiongnu carpet (Magic Mushroom scene) 1st C. BCE

January 13, 2023

Noin-Ula Xiongnu carpet (Magic Mushroom scene) 1st C. BCE - 1st C. CE

“We drank soma, we became immortal, we came to the light, we found Gods.” (Rig-Veda. Mandalas 9—10. VIII, 48.3).

Inside a deep Xiongnu grave hidden in the thickly wooded Sudzuktè pass, on the bottom of the burial chamber, archaeologists, participants of the Russian-Mongolian expedition, found what they had long been searching for: a layer of clay revealing the outline of textile relics. The fragments of the textile found were parts of a carpet composed of several cloths of dark-red woolen fabric. The time-worn cloth found on the floor covered with blue clay of the Xiongnu burial chamber and brought back to life by restorers has a long and complicated story.

Finding it two thousand years later is a pure chance; its amazingly good condition is almost a miracle. Of greatest surprise though was the unique embroidery made from wool. Its pattern was the ancient Zoroastrian ceremony, of which the principal personage was …a mushroom. In the center of the composition to the left of the altar is the king (priest), who is holding a mushroom over the fire. The «divine mushroom» embroidered on the carpet resembles well-known psychoactive species Psilocybe cubensis.

The weight of evidence suggests that soma, the ancient ritual drink, has been prepared from the mushrooms of family Strophariaceae which contain the unique nervous system stimulator psilocybin.

The Noin-Ula burials were intensively studied, but because the cemetery was desecrated in antiquity and bodies removed, no craniological, odontological, or genetic studies could be conducted."

-taken from scfh and wikipedia

Noin-Ula Xiongnu carpet (Magic Mushroom scene) 1st C. BCE - 1st C. CE. There are various opinions on the identity of the individuals depicted, though generally they are considered to depict an Iranian people. They are probably Yuezhi, indicated by their headbands and general appearance, and the carpet may have been given as tribute to the Xiongnu, traded for, or looted by the Xiongnu when they defeated the Yuezhi. This is all guesswork. While the individuals look very much like Yuezhi, depictions of nomadic people in the area aren't abundant (or at least I can't find many). Physical depictions of the Xiongnu, Wusun, and Tarim Basin people (of this time period) for example, are few and far between.