Editing Psilocybin (section)

===Early===
[[File:Psilocybe Mushrooms statues.jpg|thumb|[[Maya architecture|Mayan]] "mushroom stones" of [[Guatemala]].]]

There is evidence to suggest that psychoactive mushrooms have been used by humans in religious ceremonies for thousands of years. The [[Tassili Mushroom Figure]] was discovered in [[Tassili]], [[Algeria]], and is believed to depict psychedelic mushrooms and the transformation of the user under their influence. The paintings are said to date back to 9000-7000 BC.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Samorini G |date=1992 |title=The oldest representations of hallucinogenic mushrooms in the world (Sahara Desert, 9000-7000 BP) |url=https://www.academia.edu/79946409 |journal=Integration. Zeitschrift für geistbewegende Pflanzen und Kultur. |volume=2/3 |pages=69–65}}{{Dead link|date=August 2023|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref>

6,000-year-old [[pictographs]] discovered near the Spanish town of [[Villar del Humo]] illustrate several mushrooms that have been tentatively identified as ''[[Psilocybe hispanica]]'', a hallucinogenic species native to the area.<ref name="Akers2011" />

Some scholars have also interpreted archaeological [[Artifact (archaeology)|artifacts]] from [[Mexico]] and the so-called [[Maya architecture|Mayan]] "mushroom stones" of [[Guatemala]] as evidence of ritual and ceremonial use of psychoactive mushrooms in the [[Maya civilization|Mayan]] and [[Aztec]] cultures of [[Mesoamerica]].<ref name="Stamets_1996">{{Cite book |title=Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World: An Identification Guide |vauthors=Stamets P |publisher=[[Ten Speed Press]] |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-89815-839-7 |location=Berkeley, California |author-link=Paul Stamets}}</ref>{{rp|11}} In [[Nahuatl]], the language of the Aztecs, the mushrooms were called ''teonanácatl''—literally "divine mushroom": the agglutinative form of teō(tl) ("god", "sacred") and nanācatl ("mushroom") in Nahuatl.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}} 

After Spanish explorers of the [[New World]] arrived in the 16th century, chroniclers reported the use of mushrooms by the natives for ceremonial and religious purposes. According to the [[Dominican Order|Dominican]] friar [[Diego Durán]] in ''The History of the Indies of New Spain'' (published c.&nbsp;1581), mushrooms were eaten in festivities conducted on the occasion of Aztec emperor [[Moctezuma II]]'s accession to the throne in 1502. The [[Franciscan]] friar [[Bernardino de Sahagún]] wrote of witnessing mushroom use in the [[Florentine Codex]] (published 1545–1590),<ref name="Marley2010" />{{rp|164}} and described how some merchants would celebrate upon returning from a successful business trip by consuming mushrooms to evoke revelatory visions.<ref name="Hofmann2009" />{{rp|118}} After the [[Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire|defeat of the Aztecs]], the Spanish forbade traditional religious practices and rituals that they considered "pagan idolatry", including ceremonial mushroom use. For the next four centuries, the Indians of [[Mesoamerica]] hid their use of [[entheogens]] from the Spanish authorities.<ref name="Marley2010" />{{rp|165}}

Dozens of species of psychedelic mushrooms are found in Europe, but there is little documented usage of them in [[Old World]] history besides the use of ''[[Amanita muscaria]]'' among Siberian peoples.<ref name="nyberg1">{{Cite journal |vauthors=Nyberg H |year=1992 |title=Religious use of hallucinogenic fungi: A comparison between Siberian and Mesoamerican Cultures |journal=Karstenia |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=71–80 |doi=10.29203/ka.1992.294 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality |vauthors=Wasson RG |publisher=Harcourt Brace Jovanovick |year=1968 |isbn=978-0-88316-517-1 |page=161}}</ref> The few existing accounts that mention psilocybin mushrooms typically lack sufficient information to allow species identification, focusing on their effects. For example, Flemish botanist [[Carolus Clusius]] (1526–1609) described the ''bolond gomba'' ("crazy mushroom"), used in rural [[Hungary]] to prepare love potions. English botanist [[John Parkinson (botanist)|John Parkinson]] included details about a "foolish mushroom" in his 1640 [[herbal]] ''Theatricum Botanicum''.<ref name="Gartz_1997">{{Cite book |title=Magic Mushrooms Around the World |vauthors=Gartz J |publisher=LIS Publications |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-9653399-0-2 |location=Los Angeles, California}}</ref>{{rp|10–12}} The first reliably documented report of intoxication with ''Psilocybe semilanceata''—Europe's most common and widespread psychedelic mushroom—involved a British family in 1799, who prepared a meal with mushrooms they had picked in London's [[Green Park]].<ref name="Gartz_1997" />{{rp|16}}