THRIVING DRUG TRADE 3,400 YEARS AGO

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

When turned upside down, the thin-necked vessels with round bases resemble
opium poppy 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.

Based on ancient Egyptian medical writings from the 3rd millennium B.C.,
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.

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.