Traces of opium have been discovered in Israel in vessels used in burial rituals by the ancient Canaanites, providing some of the oldest evidence of the use of the drug in the world. Late Bronze Age vessels in the shape of inverted poppy flowers, discovered in 2012 during excavations at Tel Yehud in central Israel, were found in Canaanite graves, where they were likely used in funerary ceremonies and for offerings for the dead in the afterlife. the researchers said on Tuesday.
A new joint study by the Weizmann Institute of Science, Tel Aviv University and the Israel Antiquities Authority analyzed organic residues in eight containers and found that they were opium, some of which was produced locally and some in Cyprus. The finds date back to the 14th century BC, the researchers said in their study published in the journal Archaeometry. Exactly how the Canaanites used opium in their burial rituals remains unknown, the researchers said.
“It is possible that during these ceremonies, conducted by family members or by a priest on their behalf, participants tried to raise the spirits of their deceased relatives to make a request and went into an ecstatic state by taking opium,” he said. Ron Beeri of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
Alternatively, it is possible that the opium that was placed next to the body was to help the person’s spirit rise from the grave and prepare to meet its relatives in the next life,” Beeri said. In 2020, researchers confirmed that traces of cannabis from the 8th century BC were found on an altar in a 3,000-year-old ancient Israelite sanctuary in the Negev desert.
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