There was no limit to the surprise of scientists when, in 1965, in Chukotka, in the Pegtymel River valley, rock carvings made by the Chukchi were first discovered
At first, only images of deer came across - the main source of food for the northern people. But when the archaeologist Nikolai Dikov decided to study these petroglyphs in more detail, he found completely incomprehensible images among the drawings. Either people in huge hats, or mushrooms with strange legs, similar to human bodies. Scientists began to find more and more similar drawings on the rocks.
It's all about the hat
At first, it was suggested that these petroglyphs are somehow connected with alien creatures. Scientists adhering to a more pragmatic position tried to find similarities between the depicted objects and the Chukchi in national dress. But neither one nor the other managed to somehow scientifically substantiate their ideas. Then Nikolai Dikov suggested that these are images of mysterious man-mushrooms. However, at that time his idea did not receive support in academia.
So the strange drawings depicted by the Chukchi on the stones would have remained another mystery, if in 1999 the famous ethnographer Andrei Golovnev, upon a more detailed examination of the images, did not find that the outlines of legs can be traced in the mushroom figurines, which are conveyed by a closed line in the form of a mushroom leg. This finding shifted the balance in favor of Nikolai Dikov's hypothesis. But why and why the Chukchi so persistently painted mushrooms with human bodies had yet to be unraveled.
According to the scientific secretary of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Ekaterina Devlet, "the earliest 'mushroom' petroglyphs date back to the middle of the first millennium AD, and the later ones are from the very recent past." Proceeding from the fact that the Chukchi had been painting humanoid mushrooms for such a long period, scientists came to the conclusion that this was certainly connected with the ancient ritual custom of the northern people.
To put an end to the "mushroom question", in 2005 a scientific expedition was undertaken to the Kaikuul cliff, led by Ekaterina Devlet. The researchers went to the Pegtymel River valley in order to collect the most complete material on the Chukchi petroglyphs and study the history of their origin. The location was not chosen by chance. As a member of the expedition Igor Georgievsky told Itogi, “The Kaykuul cliff of Pegtymel has long been almost the only place for the Chukchi to cross the river. There is a very convenient ford, through which the Chukchi drove deer. First, wild, and then, when they were engaged in animal husbandry, then domestic herds. " Accordingly, waiting out the bad weather, people placed their yarangas there and lived until the river calms down, some stayed for the winter.
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Scientists, in principle, did not have any disputes about why the Chukchi painted deer on the rocks. “It is known that northern peoples, in order to appease the spirits, painted deer on stones as the most durable thing on earth,” says Ekaterina Devlet. "According to their beliefs, such images could bring good luck to hunters and reindeer herders." But among more than three hundred groups of drawings found during the four expeditions of Catherine Davlet, about 10 percent depicted mushroom men. What for? The answer to this question was to be found by the expedition.
Living next to the Chukchi, scientists, of course, constantly contacted local residents, studied their customs and culture. “It turned out that the Chukchi have a real cult of mushrooms, and not ordinary boletus or honey agarics, but fly agarics,” says Igor Georgievsky. So one less riddle. And what the specks on the caps of the drawn people mean is now clear. But why did they not paint mushrooms as they are, but gave them a semi-human image?
Drawing lessons
It is no secret that some peoples in their ritual rituals used psychotropic substances to enter a state of altered consciousness. Among other things, various poisonous or hallucinogenic mushrooms were eaten by shamans before performing the sacraments. Representatives of the peoples of the North and Siberia ate, among other things, fly agarics, but for them the mushroom was more a means of achieving trance - nothing more. As well as wine for a European or sugar dishes for an Eastern person.
For the Chukchi, the fly agaric was something more. This is evidenced at least by the diligence and cost they knocked out their drawings on the rocks. “When we just started studying petroglyphs, there was no doubt that they were made with stone tools,” says Ekaterina Devlet. - After all, there was no metal in Chukotka at all. From the middle of the first millennium, it was imported from the Amur, and then from the central regions of Russia. If any object was grinded, then it was not thrown away, but used for other purposes. Therefore, there could be no question that the most valuable material was used mainly for painting on stones. But what was the surprise of the scientists when they conducted a trace examination and practical research! The experiments of the St. Petersburg archaeologist Yevgeny Giri showed that the petroglyphs were applied precisely with metal tools.“If you were not sorry for this precious tool, then you can imagine what spiritual value the Chukchi attached to the images of fly agarics,” says Ekaterina Devlet.
The Chukchi themselves largely helped to reveal the secret of the strange drawings. Although they are very reluctant to talk with outsiders about the customs of their people and never under any circumstances talk about the spiritual side of their lives, historians and ethnographers managed to find out that fly agaric people exist in the Chukchi worldview on a par with other people. It turns out that the northern peoples use fly agarics for a very specific purpose. They are eaten to communicate with ancestors. “All peoples have developed a cult of veneration for their deceased relatives. For example, we go to the cemetery on certain days of the year, - says Ekaterina Davlet, - and there, sitting at the grave, we commemorate our parents or grandmothers and grandfathers. The Chukchi also do not forget about their roots, but the process of communication with their ancestors happens in their own way."
The graves in Chukotka look different. Usually the Chukchi lay the bodies of deceased relatives in the tundra, and wild animals take them away. Sometimes stone boxes are erected in rock breaks. But the Chukchi do not go to the remains. They visit the dead in the land of their ancestors. According to legend, this is a large valley covered with ice from the tears of deceased people.
A person himself cannot get into this country. He must be led there by a man-fly agaric, who comes only when the Chukchi eats a mushroom and plunges into a state similar to intoxication. If in other peoples such psychotropic drugs could only be taken by clergymen, then among the Chukchi, fly agarics were available to everyone. According to local residents, the process of visiting deceased relatives is as follows: the Chukchi eat the right amount of amanita. Usually it is a multiple of the magic number 7. (Although doctors assure that such a quantity of poisonous mushrooms for an ordinary person is simply incompatible with life.) After that, the person who took the mushrooms lies down and waits for the arrival of those very fly agaric people. Then the mushrooms "lead" to the desired ancestor. He can tell him about his afterlife and answer exciting questions. For example,what the spirit of sickness or rain has planned.
Who dared, he ate
Trips to the land of their ancestors are not all that fly agarics give to the Chukchi. As Igor Georgievsky said, "these poisonous mushrooms are present in almost all areas of the life of the peoples of Chukotka." They have been used since ancient times both as a medicine and as stimulants. In the Chukchi epic, there are many legends about miraculous heroes and simple hunters who, in order to overcome long distances along the tundra, took mushrooms that give strength. Chukchi wounded by the beast or in battles with hostile tribes also ate fly agarics as an anesthetic. In the national costumes of the Chukchi, both men and women certainly have special bags - first aid kits. In them, according to legend, people wore powder from fly agaric.
When ethnographers unraveled the mystery of the fly agaric people, then, naturally, there were those who wanted to join the hitherto unknown culture of the Chukchi. And, according to the stories of both the experimenters and witnesses, most of these attempts ended, to put it mildly, in failure. For example, in 2007 a large delegation of American ethnographers visited Chukotka. Some of them decided to taste the miracle mushrooms. As a result, the whole thing ended with a banal poisoning.
It must be admitted that many researchers of the peoples of the North tried to repeat the ritual actions of the Chukchi, but few got the expected effect from eating fly agarics. Who knows, maybe, in fact, this nomadic people, in addition to beliefs, have some peculiarity that gives them the opportunity to live so peacefully with poisonous mushrooms.