Pubdate: Thu, 08 Aug 2002
Source: Tampa Tribune (FL)
Section: Nation/World
Copyright: 2002, The Tribune Co.
Contact:  http://www.tampatrib.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/446
Author: Jason Keyser of the Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

POTS HINT AT ANCIENT DRUG TRADE

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 of them nearly identical in shape and about 5 
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.

The drugs probably were 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 said at a 
recent conference in Israel on DNA and archaeology.

When turned upside down, the thin-necked vessels with round bases resemble 
opium poppie pods. 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 such as 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 B.C., 
researchers believe opium and hashish, a smokable drug that comes from the 
concentrated resin from the flowers of marijuana plants, were used during 
surgery and to treat aches and pains and other ailments. Hashish was also 
used to ease menstrual cramps and was offered to women during childbirth.

Based on Egyptian writings, archaeologists think 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 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 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.

The ancient trade likely 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 archaeologically rich area of central Israel, Zias found another 
clue. While excavating a tomb from the late Roman period in Beit Shemesh 10 
years ago, he found the skeleton of a 14-year-old girl who died in 
childbirth about 390 A.D. 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 Hebrew University, it turned out to be a mixture of 
hashish, dried seeds, fruit and common reeds.

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. She bled to death.

The drug was a rare find. Organic compounds quickly decay, but because this 
one had been burned, it was carbonized and preserved.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager