Context· weakTIK-E010
The Road to Eleusis (1978): the founding hypothesis and its own caveat
- what the source states
- Wasson, Hofmann, and Ruck proposed in 1978 that ergot growing on the barley of the Rarian plain supplied the kykeon's active agent, with water-soluble psychoactive alkaloids separable from the toxic fraction. Hofmann's caveat, quoted by the 2026 paper: "We have no way to tell what the chemistry was of the ergot of barley or wheat raised on the Rarian plain in the 2nd millennium B.C."
- what we infer
- The intellectual origin of everything on the pro side, carrying real interdisciplinary authority and no archaeological data. Its role in the ledger is context: the hypothesis under test, with its founder's own uncertainty preserved.
- limitations
- Advocacy by the hypothesis's originators; the specific 1978 water-solubility mechanism was superseded by the alkaline-hydrolysis proposal (TIK-E011).