An Ancient Drug Connection
Researchers: Narcotics trade thrived in Bronze Age Middle East
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS - August 8, 2002
Jerusalem - A thriving Bronze Age drug trade supplied narcotics to ancient cultures throughout the eastern Mediterranean as balm for the pain of childbirth and disease, proving a sophisticated knowledge of medicines dating back thousands of years, researchers say.
Ancient ceramic pots, most nearly identical in shape and about five inches long, have been found in tombs and settlements throughout the Middle East, dating as far back as 1,400 B.C., said Joe Zias, an anthropologist at Jerusalem's Hebrew University.
"It's a window to the past that many people are unaware of," Zias told a recent conference in Israel on DNA and archaeology.
"Here's something used in prehistoric times and it's used until today."
When turned upside down, the thin-necked vessels with round bases resemble opium poppies pods.
The Mycenaean ceramics were analyzed with a procedure called gas chromatography that turned up traces of opium.
Hundreds of the pots have been found. They commonly show up in the hands of antiquities dealers in places like Jerusalem's Old City. "Give me an hour there and I could find you 10 of them," Zias said.
Based on ancient Egyptian medical writings, researchers believe opium and hashish - a smokable drug from the concentrated resin from the flowers of hemp plants - were used during surgery and to treat aches and pains and other ailments. Hashish also was used to ease menstrual cramps and was even offered to women during childbirth.
Based on Egyptian writings, archaeologists believe the opium was eaten rather than smoked.
The drugs are part of a medical record that shows the ancients were far more advanced than most people realize, Zias said, noting evidence that the Romans left records of 120 surgical procedures.
Mark Spigelman, a Zias colleague at Hebrew University, found one of the poppy-shaped ceramic pots from the middle Bronze Age in Siqqura, a Giza cemetery near the pyramids outside of Cairo, during a dig four years ago. The pot, found in an 18th Egyptian Dynasty grave, was identical to other pots found throughout ancient Israel and the Middle East.
"These guys were selling opium all over the Middle East," Spigelman said. "This is the original Medellin cartel, 3,500 years ago," he said in a joking reference to the violent Colombian cocaine cartel.
It seems more likely, however, that the ancient trade was run by respected healers.
"We know for sure these things were used for medical purposes," Zias said. "The question is whether they were used for recreational purposes."
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