In 1965, a group of Soviet scientists worked in Chukotka in the Pegtymel River valley. When they discovered the stunning rock carvings made by the Chukchi in the distant past, their surprise knew no bounds.
Researchers have long been accustomed to finding images (petroglyphs) in Chukotka, most often they were drawings of deer - after all, these animals were the main food of the local population. Among the newly found ordinary drawings were completely incomprehensible - these were images of either people in huge hats, or mushrooms with human bodies and strange legs.
The following fact is curious - in the Mayan stone sculpture there are also such humanoid mushrooms, hallucinogens.
The first assumption that comes to mind at the sight of such petroglyphs is that they depict nothing other than alien creatures. However, scientists were in no hurry to accept this version - they tried to find the similarity of these drawings with the Chukchi in national clothes. One of the researchers, Nikolai Dikov, put forward his hypothesis that these are images of some mysterious human mushrooms. However, his colleagues were skeptical about the idea.
It took a long time. In 1999, ethnographer Andrei Golovnev, studying rock paintings of northern peoples, discovered that mushroom figurines have legs in the form of closed lines, which makes them look even more like the legs of an ordinary mushroom. They immediately remembered the hypothesis of N. Dikov. But now another mystery has arisen - why did the Chukchi draw man-mushrooms?
It has been established that the earliest "mushroom" petroglyphs date back to the middle of the first millennium AD, but the "latest" ones were drawn relatively recently. The most obvious explanation today is that the drawings of human-shaped mushrooms are associated with the customs and rituals of the northern people.
To get some explanation for the "mushroom" people, in 2005 a scientific expedition was sent to the north. Scientists, naturally, went to the valley of the Pegtymel River, known to many. They hoped to collect maximum information on the mysterious petroglyphs and try to find out the history of their origin.
An interesting fact is that the Kaikuul cliff on the Pegtymel River was practically the only place for the Chukchi to cross to the other side. It was here that a convenient ford was located, which made it possible to transfer deer across the river. Naturally, it was on this coast that the Chukchi could wait out the bad weather for a long time in the yarangas they built, or even hibernated here. It is possible that in order to appease the gods and spirits, the Chukchi drew on the rocks. And ten percent of these images were "mushroom men".
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The members of the expedition lived among the Chukchi for a long time, studying their culture and customs. In the records of scientists there are the following notes: "It turned out that the Chukchi have a real cult of mushrooms, and not ordinary boletus or honey agarics, but fly agarics."
For example, mushrooms were of some importance for the Chukchi, but why were mushrooms given a semi-human image in the drawings?
It is known that many shamans in their rituals used various psychotropic substances to enter a state of trance. This herbal remedy could well be hallucinogenic mushrooms.
It should be noted that not only shamans ate mushrooms - many representatives of the northern peoples were very fond of eating mushrooms, including fly agarics.
Scientists have established that the Chukchi applied drawings on the rocks with the help of metal tools, while metal in Chukotka was worth its weight in gold. This once again confirmed that images of amanitas with legs were of great spiritual value for the Chukchi.
The Chukchi themselves helped to reveal the secret of the "mushroom man". It turned out that the existence of fly agaric people is quite consciously perceived by the Chukchi as an objective reality. According to representatives of the northern nomadic people, with the help of fly agarics, the Chukchi communicate with their ancestors. This is how the ethnographer Ekaterina Devlet wrote about it: “All peoples have developed a cult of veneration for their dead relatives. For example, we go to the cemetery on certain days of the year, and there, sitting by the grave, we commemorate our parents or grandparents. Chukchi also do not forget about their roots, but the process of communication with ancestors happens in their own way. " The Chukchi do not bury the bodies of the deceased - they simply leave them in an open space in the tundra. Since there is no burial place, there is no way to visit the graves. Therefore, the Chukchi "visit" the ancestors who died in the country.
Legends say that the valley of the ancestors is covered with ice from the tears of people who have gone to another world. No one can visit it on their own - only the fly agaric man can take it there. To summon such a guide to the world of their ancestors, the Chukchi ate 7 fly agarics (magic number) and plunged into a state of trance similar to intoxication. The mushroom-men who came to him led him to the desired ancestor.
The Chukchi are sure that their ancestor can tell not only about his afterlife, but also answer any questions. But fly agarics are not only assistants in the journey of the Chukchi to the land of their ancestors - these poisonous mushrooms are used by the northern people, in almost all spheres of life. Mushrooms are used by the Chukchi for medicinal purposes and as stimulants. In the Chukchi epic, there are many legends that hunters often used mushrooms to maintain their strength in distant campaigns and difficult situations. Hunters wounded by the beast or warriors who received wounds in the fight against hostile tribes used fly agarics as an anesthetic. You can often see small bags attached to Chukchi clothes, in which there is powder from fly agarics.
Many researchers of the life of the peoples of the North tried to join the rather strange culture of the Chukchi, but all the cases ended in failure: at best, they received banal poisoning …
We must admit the fact that the northern nomadic people have learned to live peacefully next to poisonous mushrooms. And the rock carvings in Chukotka, depicting man-mushrooms, according to researchers, must be recognized as a monument of the ancient culture of northern peoples.
