Pubdate: Mon, 12 Aug 2002
Source: Jerusalem Post (Israel)
Copyright: 2002,sThe Jerusalem Post
Contact:  http://www.jpost.co.il/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/516
Author: Jason Keyser

ISRAEL CENTER OF ANCIENT DRUG TRADE

A thriving Bronze Age drug trade supplied opium and hashish for medicinal
purposes to ancient cultures throughout the eastern Mediterranean, proving a
sophisticated knowledge of medicines dating back thousands of years,
researchers say.

Ancient ceramic pots containing residues of the drugs, most of them 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 1400 BCE, said
Joe Zias, an anthropologist at the Hebrew University.

The drugs were probably used as medicine and the finds are helping
researchers better understand how ancient people treated illness and
disease.

"It's a window to the past that many people are unaware of," Zias told a
recent conference in Israel on DNA and archeology. "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. If there
was any doubt about what was inside, the round bases have white markings,
designs that symbolized knife cuts made on poppies bulbs so the white opium
base can ooze and be harvested, Zias said.

The Mycenaean ceramics were analyzed with a procedure called gas
chromatography that turned up traces of opium.

Hundreds of the pots have been found and 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 from the third millennium BCE,
researchers believe opium and hashish a smokable drug that comes from the
concentrated resin from the flowers of hemp plants were used during surgery
and to treat aches and pains and other ailments. Hashish was also used to
ease menstrual cramps and was even offered to women during childbirth.

Based on Egyptian writings, archeologists 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 European
people did cranial surgery as long as 10,000 years ago, while the Romans
left records of 120 surgical procedures.

Mark Spigelman, a colleague of Zias's at the 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 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 rather than violent drug lords.

"We know for sure these things were used for medical purposes," Zias said.
"The question is whether they were used for recreational purposes." In an
archeologically rich area of central Israel, Zias found another clue. While
excavating a tomb from the late Roman period in the town of Beit Shemesh 10
years ago, he found the skeleton of a 14-year-old girl who died in
childbirth around 390 CE. On her stomach was a fleck of a burnt brownish,
black substance.

"I thought it was incense," Zias said. But when he had it analyzed by police
and chemists at the Hebrew University, it turned out to be a seven gram
mixture of hashish, dried seeds, fruit, and common reeds.

Seven glass vessels containing traces of the drug were found near the
skeleton. She probably used them to inhale the smoky cocktail to aid her
delivery. Medical researchers have found that other than relaxing the user,
hashish increases the force and frequency of contractions in women giving
birth; and it was used in deliveries until the 19th century, after which new
drugs were developed.

But it didn't help this girl, who was only 4 feet 6 inches tall. She bled to
death.

The drug was an extremely rare find. Organic compounds quickly decay, but
because this one had been burned it was carbonized and preserved.

"It's the first time it's ever been found in terms of direct evidence in an
archeological dig," Zias said. "You rarely find direct evidence of drugs in
antiquity." (AP)
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