The earliest evidence of opium use in the ancient world was found at a burial site in central Israel during the Late Bronze Age.
Residue of the narcotic, which is made using the seed capsule of the poppy plant, was found inside more than a half dozen 3,500-year-old pottery vessels at the site.
The pit tomb was discovered in 2012 during an excavation. The opium-laden pottery was found with the remains of a man who died between 40 and 50 years of age, according to a study published in the journal Archaeometry.
The researchers found trace amounts of the drug in eight of the ceramic vessels after testing 22 jars and juglets. Several of the pieces that tested positive looked like an inverted poppy capsule. The pottery was imported from the island of Cyprus, which is west of Tel Yehud.
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opium was present from at least the middle of the sixth millennium in the Mediterranean, where it may have grown naturally and was cultivated by pioneer Neolithic communities.
An ancient "hangover prevention" ring has been found in Israel.
According to the study's lead author, there was a hypothesis that some of the jugs looked like opium. opium was found in some of the vessels, that's what we found.
Linares said researchers have a number of theories about why opium was part of the burial.
According to the historical and written record, the Egyptians reserved opium for warriors as well as priests, and the Sumerian priests used opium to reach a higher state of spirituality.
She said that it may have been an offering for the gods, and that the dead would need it in the afterlife. We can make a lot of speculations about what happened.
It was originally published on Live Science
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