For the first time, scientists have confirmed that Native Americans used a hallucinogenic drug while painting rock art, according to a new study.

For the first time, a study finds evidence suggesting that a hallucinogenic plant was consumed at a rock art site and that the art is likely a representation of the plant. (Photo: Devlin Gandy).

For the first time, scientists have confirmed that Native Americans used a hallucinogenic drug while painting rock art, according to a new study. .

The study concluded that Native Americans, likely of the Chumash tribe, consumed the hallucinogenic plant Datura wrightii hundreds of years ago at a rock art site in Pinwheel Cave in California – and that the art they painted is likely a representation of that plant.

Robinson, an archaeologist at the University of Central Lancashire in the U.K.: "There is evidence of hallucinogens being depicted in rock art, and evidence of hallucinogenic plants growing at rock art sites, but to my knowledge no clear evidence of the actual preparation and consumption of a hallucinogen at a rock art site has been reported anywhere in the world."