Archaeologists Discover the Earliest Use of Opium Dating Back to 14Qth Century BC

At a Late Bronze Age burial site in central Israel, dating to roughly the 14th century B.C., researchers have found the oldest indication of opium use in ancient times, according to a report by LiveScience.

More than a half dozen 3,500-year-old clay vessels at the site, located in Tel Yehud, a region formerly known as Canaan, had residue of the narcotic, which is made from the poppy plant's seed capsules.

The pit tomb was found in 2012 during an excavation by archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Weizmann Institute of Science.

According to a study released on July 2 in the journal Archaeometry, scientists discovered the opium-laced pottery in 2017, along with the skeletal remains of a male who died between the ages of 40 and 50.

ISRAEL-ARCHAEOLOGY-NEGEV — An aerial view shows Palestinian workers of Israel's Antiquities Authority during work at a recently discovered ancient mosque, which dates back to the early Islamic period, in the Bedouin town of Rahat in Israel's southern Negev desert on June 22, 2022. - The discovery of the site, which dates back to the period between the seventh and eighth centuries, was made in a few years ago during extensive archeological excavations conducted by the Israel as part of a plan to expand southern Rahat with state funding, through the Bedouin Development and Settlement Authority in the Negev. MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images

Discovering Opium in Jars and Juglets

Chemical analysis was used to examine 22 storage jars and juglets, and the results showed that eight of the ceramic containers had trace levels of the extremely addictive substance.

A few of the pieces that tested positive resembled the bulbous form of an upside-down poppy capsule.

The researchers deduced that some of the pottery was brought from the island of Cyprus, which is located west of Tel Yehud, based on the presence of clay bands on the long-necked vessels and other distinctive motifs associated with pottery from that place.

Opium poppies may have naturally grown and been domesticated by early Neolithic cultures in the Mediterranean region as early as the middle of the sixth millennium, according to a study published in Nature.

Vanessa Linares, a doctorate student at Tel Aviv University and the study's principal author, said that there was a 2017 theory that some of the jugs might have contained opium because they resembled poppies.

Linares added that this was the case with the opium they discovered in some vessels.

Offering to the Gods

It's unknown why opium was included in this specific burial, but according to Linares, experts have many possibilities that are supported by historical records from other ancient civilizations throughout the world.

"According to the historical and written record, we see that Sumerian priests used opium to reach a higher state of spirituality, while the Egyptians reserved opium for warriors as well as priests, possibly using it not only to have a psychoactive effect but also for medicinal processes, since its main compound is morphine, which is used to help with pain," Linares said in a statement with LiveScience.

"Perhaps it was also there as an offering for the gods, and maybe they thought that the deceased would need it in the afterlife, I think we can make a lot of speculations and suggestions for why it was there."

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Written by Joaquin Victor Tacla