Psychedelic traces found on mug from ancient Egypt

Egyptians may have used hallucinogenic substances as part of a fertility rite, say researchers

- ALEXANDER NAZARYAN

SOMETHING IN THE printout caught Branko van Oppen de Ruiter's eye. He was at home in the Netherlands, working remotely for his new employer, the Tampa Museum of Art, which had named him a curator of Greek and Roman exhibits. The coronavirus had delayed his move to Florida, so he did what he could studying the museum's collections from afar.

That was when he noticed, on a list of the museum's holdings, a cup from the second century BC bearing the face of Bes, a notoriously ugly ancient Egyptian god who was fond of revelry. There was an identical cup in the Allard Pierson museum of antiquities in Amsterdam, where van Oppen previously worked. "That fascinated me," he said in an interview.