Member-only story
Scientists have hit upon the first evidence of opium use in antiquity.
The use of opium in antiquity may surprise you. What do the authors of a study conducted in Israel suggest?
Israeli archaeologists have stumbled upon ceramic vessels dating back to the 14th century BC. What they found inside them may prove the oldest evidence of drug use in antiquity — it’s all about the traces of opium they found. The artifacts were unearthed in Tel Yehud, a town about 18 kilometers from Tel Aviv. Scientists were prompted to study them by their shape — inverted poppy flowers. It is from these plants that opium is produced.
Actually, sea poppy is one of the first plants in the world that began to be used for medicinal purposes. The discovery described here is the earliest evidence of the substance itself.
Buried opium found in Israel
As you can read in the journal Archaeometry, researchers from the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Weizmann Institute of Science and Tel Aviv University have identified traces of the drug in eight vessels. Not all were made locally in Israel. They were also imported from Cyprus. Canaanites were buried in the area of the discovery. Archaeologists therefore surmise that the hallucinogenic agent may have been used for burial rituals.
“Perhaps during these…
