AN ANCIENT DRUG CONNECTION

Researchers: Narcotics Trade Thrived in Bronze Age Middle East

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."