Is This the World’s Oldest Image of a Mind‑altering Plant?

Deep in the El Castillo cave in northern Spain, a small painted panel, created some 17,000 to 15,000 years ago, may hold the key to understanding humanity's relationship with mind-altering plants. The panel, often overlooked by visitors, features five red signs shaped somewhat like bells, resting beneath a natural stone ledge resembling the lip of an altar.

Archaeologists have long cataloged these as enigmatic "bell-shaped signs," but a new interpretation suggests they could be the oldest known images of psychedelic flowers – likely belladonna or henbane. The resemblance between the depicted bell-shaped flowers and the real belladonna flower's drooping, five-lobed form is striking, with a flared mouth and faint veins running down the corolla.

This discovery could push the human connection with psychoactive plants back thousands of years, predating any previously known example by 7,000 to 10,000 years. The panel's context, including a nearby stone concretion that may have served as an altar, strengthens the argument for its significance. While alternative interpretations exist, such as reading the signs as vulvar symbols, the presence of psychoactive plants in European history and their role in rituals suggest a compelling case for this interpretation.

The evidence of such plants in later European history, including their use in witch trials, further supports the idea that the panel could indeed be the oldest known image of a mind-altering plant. The claim's testability, through direct examination of the panel and environmental DNA analysis, makes it worthy of further scrutiny.