during the paleolithic, there is ample evidence of drug use as seen by preserved botanical remains and coprolites. some scholars had suggested that the "flower burial" in shanidar cave, a paleolithic site in iraq, was evidence of a shamanic death ritual, but more recent evidence and analysis has contradicted that claim. the most direct evidence we have from the paleolithic in terms of art comes from tassili, algeria cave paintings depicting "psilocybe mairei" mushrooms dated 7000 to 9000 years before present. from this region, there are several therianthropic images portraying the painter and the animals around him as one (an often cited effect of many psychedelic drugs, ego death or unity). one image, in particular, shows a man who has formed into one common form with a mushroom.