This drug was used to get the dead out of their graves

The Sumerians called it "happiness", the ancient Egyptians created ceramic vessels in the shape of its capsule, and in ancient Greece it was considered a symbol of sleep, dreams and death: the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) is one of the oldest cultivated plants of mankind. Already in the Neolithic around 5000 BC. Traces of him were found in Europe.

The find, which Israeli scientists have now made in the necropolis of Tel Yehud not far from Tel Aviv, sheds light on its purpose. They found remains of the milky sap of the opium poppy plant, better known as opium, in numerous clay vessels. The pottery containing the psychoactive drug "appeared to have been used in local funeral rites," according to a statement from Tel Aviv University, the Weizmann Institute and the Israel Antiquities Authority.

In their study in the journal Archaeometry, the researchers describe their find as further evidence of the dimensions in which the opium trade was already widespread among the early advanced civilizations of the Levant. Already the Sumerians in Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium BC. used opium, which they called "gil" (happiness). The Egyptians cultivated their poppy juice in Thebes, where it was reserved for priests, magicians and warriors.

Vessels shaped like the poppy seed pod, so-called "base ring jars", found in Cyprus and Egypt are believed to be vessels for storage. They have also been discovered in numerous tombs in Tel Yehud. But not only. Traces of the drug were also found in other ceramic forms. The team writes in its study that the old thesis that special vessels indicate opium use and trade must therefore be corrected.

The several hundred tombs that have been excavated at Tel Yehud to date date from the 18th to 13th centuries BC. BC, from the Bronze Age. It is said that most of the deceased are adult men and women. The vessels in the tombs were used for ceremonial meals and rites. At that time, the dead were seen as participants in these meals at the grave.

The researchers write that relatives may have taken opium themselves during such a ceremony to induce ecstasy. Perhaps they wanted to "raise the spirits of their deceased loved ones." It is also conceivable "that the opium placed next to the corpse was intended to help the spirit of the deceased rise from the grave in preparation for meeting loved ones in the next life".

How to imagine this came to light, for example, in 2002 in Qatna, a Bronze Age metropolis in Syria. Archaeologists from the University of Tübingen excavated the crypt of the ruling family there. In addition to the bones of the dead, they recovered numerous shards of everyday crockery, some of which still had leftovers stuck to them. Apparently, ceremonial meals were held in the tombs, attended by the living and the dead.

Because of the shape of the vessels, the researchers assume that the opium was imported from Cyprus. As written sources and other finds show, the island was an important trading point for the drug in the Bronze Age, which was probably traded from Asia Minor and the Aegean. The lower concentration of opium in some of Tel Yehud's vessels suggests that it was diluted with oil or water. Other vessels were also used for storage.

This could be interpreted as an indication that the opium trade in the Bronze Age was "on a larger scale" than previously assumed. Lead author Vanessa Linares of Tel Aviv University said it was the "only Late Bronze Age psychoactive drug found in the Levant." He shows "the importance attached to the drug".

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