Scientists Study Bronze Age Drugs

By JASON KEYSER
.c The Associated Press

JERUSALEM (Aug. 20) - 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 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.

The drugs were probably 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 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. 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.

Hundreds of the pots have been found and 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 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.

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 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 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 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 the town of Beit
Shemesh 10 years ago, he found the skeleton of a 14-year-old girl who died in
childbirth around 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 seven gram
mixture of hashish, dried seeds, fruit and common reeds.

Seven glass vessels containing traces of the drug were found near the
skeleton. She probably used them to inhale the smoky cocktail to aid her
delivery. 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, who was only 4 feet 6 inches tall. She bled to
death.

The drug was an extremely rare find. Organic compounds quickly decay, but
because this one had been burned it was carbonized and preserved.

``It's the first time it's ever been found in terms of direct evidence in an
archaeological dig,' Zias said. ``You rarely find direct evidence of drugs
in antiquity.'

Copyright 2002 The Associated Press.

JASON KEYSER