Altered states of consciousness and ritual in late Bronze Age Cyprus
December 15, 2011 D. Collard 1 citation
Ritual and religion are increasingly recognized as central to the development of complex societies in the ancient world, especially in the East Mediterranean during the Bronze Age (c. 3000-1200 BC), where rulers often held supernatural status and ritual buildings were linked to storage and craft production. However, the role of altered states of consciousness (ASCs) in these rituals has been largely ignored, despite their widespread use in ethnographically and historically documented cultures. This paper addresses that gap by using an anthropological approach to analyze published Cypriot evidence for opium consumption, investigating whether ASCs were utilized in Bronze Age East Mediterranean ritual.