— / HIGHS AND LOWS IN THE HOLY LAND: OPIUM IN BIBLICAL TIMES

‫ישראל אופיום בתקופת המקרא‬-‫התלהבות ודיכאון בארץ‬

Author(s): Robert S. Merrillees and ‫ר"ס מריליס‬
Source:
Eretz-Israel: Archaeological, Historical and Geographical Studies /
‫ מחקרים בידיעת הארץ ועתיקותיה‬:‫ישראל‬-‫ארץ‬
Vol. YIGAEL YADIN MEMORIAL VOLUME / (1989 / pp. 148*-153* ,)‫ספר יגאל תשמ"ט‬
Published by: Israel Exploration Society
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 HIGHS AND LOWS IN THE HOLY LAND
OPIUM IN BIBLICAL TIMES

Robert S. Merrillees
Former Australian Ambassador to Israel

Yigael Yadin was truly a 'man drugs.

for While
all seasons'.
a cetain reticence attends forays into
the field
Soldier, politician and archaeologist, heofserved
opium studies,
his in recent writings on the
country and scholarship with greatopium poppy there
dedication, is evidence of a less prejudiced
and
approach
had a lasting impact on the people and to the subject.
places he To our knowledge and
appreciation
encountered. It was he who initiated of opium's
Israel's onlyrole in antiquity Merlin's
excavation overseas, and my wifestudy
andmakes a significant
I had the contribution, especially
sincethe
memorable experience of attending it brings
partytogether
helda wealth of scattered infor
mation
in the Jerusalem home of Phillip and JoyandMayerson
makes it available in a conveniently
on 3 August 1984 to celebrate the publication
synthesized form. of
Excavations at Athieniou, Cyprus From
1971-1972 by
his comprehensive survey of the published
Trade Dothan and Amnon Ben-Tor. On that data, Merlin suggests that "the combination of the
poppy flower's attractive appearance, its edible
occasion Yadin spoke, as always, entertainingly
products, and its potent psychoactive substances
and instructively, and reminded us all of the contri
bution he had made to developing academic would
linkshave made the plant very appealing to pre
historic peoples living in environments where this
between Israel and Cyprus. It seems only appropri
species
ate that I should pay tribute to Yadin's memory by could be found. In this perspective, it is not
adverting to another connection, more ancientdifficult
but to imagine that an early relationship devel
oped between man and this multi-purpose herbal
no less sensitive, between Cyprus and the southern
Levant, about which he and I spoke at our plant".1
first In support of this contention the author
meetings in Israel. The excuse to return tocites
theevidence from the Neolithic and Early Bronze
knowledge and use of opium in the Easternperiods
Medi in west central Europe, especially in and
terranean in antiquity is provided by the around
recent Switzerland,2 and from the Late Bronze
appearance of a major study on the subject Age byand subsequent times, in the eastern Mediter
Mark David Merlin in a volume entitled On the ranean.3 He also attempts to determine the natural
Trail of the Ancient Opium Poppy published inand cultural origins of the opium poppy, correctly
1984. identifying the important gaps in the extant data.4
Long the source of botanical and pharmaceutical
It is significant to note that Papaver somniferum is
interest, the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) a cultivated species, dependent on man for its
has only recently become the subject of more continued existence, for which no truly wild popu
intense and widespread humanistic investigation. lation has been found.5
This is as much attributable to the accidents of Of particular interest is Merlin's evaluation of
historical and archaeological research as to growing the available data for the source of the opium
poppy in the eastern Mediterranean. He endorses
concern about the contemporary use of addictive

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 HIGHS AND LOWS IN THE HOLY LAND: OPIUM IN BIBLICAL TIMES 149*

the view that judgement should be reserved on grounds that there is no linguistic or obvious con
knowledge, cultivation and use of the poppy and its textual evidence that la'ana is a bitter plant.14
products in the ancient Near East,6 and postulates Nevertheless both names are taken to symbolise
that "the opium poppy was not known in the wickedness and suffering, and it has even been
eastern Mediterranean region until the Late Bronze suggested that if they are not synonymous, they
Age (i.e. about 1600 BC), when it was introduced could have been parts of the same plant.15 There is,
from either central Europe or the western Mediter however, no compelling lexicographical reason to
ranean region".7 As to the reasons for its spread argue, let alone assume that rosh and la'ana should
into the Aegean and the Levant, Merlin points out be treated as though they were identical in every
that it satisfies the technical criteria of portability, way, and if, as seems generally accepted, la'ana is
weight and value, and could have been sought by Artemisia herba-alba, then a different meaning
the peoples of these areas because of its multiple must be found for rosh.
uses, "for example, its seed value as a vegetal fat Gall is an excrescence produced on trees,
source or flavoring; its medicinal value as an effec especially the oak, by the action of insects, chiefly
tive pain-suppressant sedative; its use as a hedonis by the genus Cynips. Oak-galls are largely used in
tic euphoriant; or its use in magico-ritualistic cere the manufacture of ink and tannin, as well as in
mony".8 dyeing and in medicine. Rabinowitz is surely
While Merlin has surveyed all the relevant wrong when he claims that gall is "none other than
material from Greece, Crete, Anatolia, Cyprus and the bitter bile of the gall bladder",16 for there is no
Mesopotamia, his dependence on published indication that rosh, which means head, was of
sources of information accessible to him has physiological origin and indeed all the data point to
resulted in the omission of any discussion ofa the
botanical derivation (see below, p. 00). What
exactly the translators of the Bible into English
possible knowledge of opium in ancient Palestine,
meant by the term "gall" is of less importance than
especially in biblical times. Amongst the literature
on the subject, two articles deal in summary its association with bitterness, for which the ani
fash
ion with the subject of drugs in the Holy Land,
mate kind is better known than the arboreal, and in
suggesting that opium must have been known tocase for them, as no doubt for the compilers of
any
the Hebrew text, symbolism took precedence over
the inhabitants of this region in antiquity but that
religious inhibition was responsible for the scientific
docu accuracy. As Zohary pertinently observes,
"the
mentary discreteness or silence on its use.9 There is designation of a number of biblical plants was
notby
no doubt that opium was both known and used always unequivocal or based on precise knowl
the Jews prior to about the 4th century CE,edge,
for but rather on symbolic or idiomatic usage".17
Perhaps the most sententious of all the transla
there is a reference to it in the Jerusalem Talmud in

a passage about accepting medical help from the

tions of rosh is that favoured by some scholars who
Gentiles.10 The word used is a Hebraized form of
have equated it with poison hemlock, Conium
the Greek term "örtiov", and it is described, in the maculatum.1s This identification has doubtless
context of eye salves, collyrium, as a dangerous been preferred because hemlock is the poison best
remedy. known to scholars reared in the classical tradition
More problematic is the identification of the as that said to have been self-administered by
Hebrew word rosh in the Bible, where it occurs Socrates, and therefore synonymous with nasti
eleven times, five of them in association with ness. As Zohary states, "there is no linguistic sup
la'ana.u Rosh and la'ana are customarily trans port for this rendition, although it is conventional
lated in English as "gall and wormwood", having in modern Hebrew".19 According to Rabin, the
bitter, even poisonous connotations, and are invar Hebrew dictionaries have two entries for rosh, the
iably used in the pejorative sense.12 While it is first defining this word as "head" in both the literal
customary to equate la'ana with the Artemesia and metaphorical sense, the second as "poison" or
family, or wormwood, which is both aromatic and "a poisonous plant" occurring only in biblical
bitter,13 Zohary contests the identification on the Hebrew.20 A careful etymological investigation into

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150* ROBERTS MERRILLEES

though itto
the usage of the word led him can be addictive, but most
conclude that importantly,
the
as Professor word
second entry is not a separate Lavie's experimentation
of differenthas proved, it
is bitter to the taste. In other
derivation but a semantic development ofwords
the Papaver somni
first,
which he reconstructs in the
ferum is
following
being blamed for man's
way:21failure to resist its
(1) The head of a planttemptation
(metaphor), such effects,
and avoid its psychotropic as a
rather
flower or a fruit, e.g. the than vice versa,
poppy head;and the (2)
biblical
A proscription
plant
is intended
whose flowers or fruits grow at to deter
its mortals
top from seeking solace or
(metonymy);
(3) Plants as the above, (A) whose
ecstasy topinstead
through artificial bears spices
of spiritual means.
or (B) whose uppermost If
part
rosh was has a bitter
indeed opium — and all thetaste;
circumstan
(4) An uncultivated plant, noxious
tial evidence weeds
points in that direction27 inthe
— then
general (expansion); (5) desire
A fluid
to deny a rolesubstance, pro
to organic forms of stimula
tion
duced by the plants in (3) or somnolence
(B) above; (Merlin's
(6) Any Latin lets bitter
him down
fluid, whatever its source (expansion).
when translating Vergil's famous line28) owes more
Botanicaly rosh can be described as Inathis
to society than to ethics. tall
respectplant,
it is of some
historiographical
rooting and flowering in the fields, interest
whosethat while many authori
head has
ties over the last century
a bitter taste.22 As Feliks correctly have been prudishly
observes, these disin
criteria would fit Papaver clined to admit the possibility
somniferum that roshMer
exactly. meant
lin states that "apparently Papaver somniferum,29 no
all varieties of lessthe
a scholar than the
opium
(pre-Victorian)
poppy ... are known only from grammarian Gesenius,
pioneer writing in
habitats
created and maintainedtheby humans
early 19th either
century, translated the Hebrewcon
word
as opium poppy juice.30
sciously, in the form of cultivated fields, or uncon
Archaeological
sciously, in the form of 'waste evidence or
areas' for knowledge
disturbedof the
opium
environments adjacent to or inpoppy
thein pre-Christian
near vicinityPalestine is scanty.
of
There are
these fields".23 Furthermore, itnoseems
botanical grounds for claiming
unlikely that
that
the technique of releasing Papaver the somniferum
latex by was incising
native to the Holy
the Land
seed head was the earliest or even the most (1contra Germer),31 and the earlier assumptions that
a capsule of this species was depicted on the Jewish
common means used later for obtaining the narcot
ic effects of opium, and "most, perhaps all, coinage
prehis of John Hyrcanus II32 have proved mis
taken, as the fruit portrayed was most likely a
toric people who used the opium poppy to produce
pomegranate.33
drugs, probably did so by boiling, steeping, or Little doubt can, however, be
attached
soaking the capsules in order to extract the psy to the identification of the plant head on
choactive ingredients which we now know arean issue
con of 1st century BCE coins of Herod the
Great as belonging to the opium poppy.34 Accord
tained in the milky juice of the seed vessels".24
Certainly this method of infusion or decoctioning to Meshorer, there had existed at Samaria
was
well attested in classical times, and moreover Sebaste prior to Herod's time a cult of growth and
fertility centred on worship of the Greek goddess
opium in its raw form has a bitter taste, which has
since time immemorial been linked with healing Demeter (and her daughter, Persephone), whose
properties or "the universal theme that a good characteristic attributes were ears of wheat and
medicine must be unpleasant".25 poppy capsules.35 Herod is known to have erected a
While Rabbi Rabinowitz is "inclined to regard temple to Augustus at Samaria-Sebaste36 and is
that identification [with Papaver somniferum] as a believed to have "depicted the poppy on his coin
far-fetched one which belongs to the period before age to honor the local cult of Demeter and Kore at
biblical botany became an exact [sic] science",26 it Samaria".37 This phenomenon tends to confirm the
is clear from the foregoing that the attribution to impression that Papaver somniferum was intro
rosh of poisonous qualities is less a scientific duced, or at least re-introduced, from abroad
description of the effects of this substance on the during Greek or Hellenistic times.
human body than a moral denunciation of the I have elsewhere postulated that the Bucchero
weakness of man's flesh. Opium is not poisonous, jug type produced in Cyprus in the 14th to 12th

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 HIGHS AND LOWS IN THE HOLY LAND: OPIUM IN BIBLICAL TIMES 151*

111. 1-2. Koukla Kaminia. Tomb IX No. 7. Bucchers jug

centuries BCE and exported, though not in quan

plete. In the mouth is a compacted bung of whitish
geological origin, in which are set some very small
tity, to the rest of the Levant, including Palestine,
may have been modelled on the opium poppy rounded grits and a piece of a small igneous pebble.
capsule.38 An opportunity to test this hypothesis Shaking the vase indicated that there was loose
was fortuitously provided by a Bucchero jug found material inside. A hole was drilled in the base and a
in Kouklia Kaminia Tomb IX No. 7, for infor sample of the contents was sent for analysis to Mr
mation about which I am indebted to Ethel Hunter, John Evans of the Division of Chemistry, North
Franz Maier, and Hector Catling who took the East London Polytechnic, who also examined the
photographs. It had the unique feature of what residues in two other Cypriote Bronze Age con
appears to have been a stopper deliberately intro tainers (see below the report which he generously
duced into the mouth to close the vessel. It has been contributed).
dated to Late Cypriote IIIA and is now in the The specimen in the Rockefeller Museum, Jeru
Kouklia Museum (Ills 1, 2). Bucchero ware jug. salem, whose sampling was made possible with the
Swollen piriform, almost globular body with broad assistance of Celia Bergoffen and Joe Zias, came
low base-ring with straight flaring sides; tall, from Tell el-Ajjul (Museum Reg. No. 47.2690/3).
narrow, cylindrical neck with slightly everted circu Base-ring I-II juglet. Piriform body with broad low
lar rim; thickish strap handle from rim to shoulder. base-ring with concave flaring sides. Extremely
Relief decoration of a ridge around junction of hard, thin clay, fired grey with thin orange-brown
neck and body and a number of vertical swirling outer face; exterior completely desurfaced and
ridges around body, not plastic but formed from encrusted. Diameter of base: 4.7 cm. Mended and
the fabric by a groove displacing a ridge of clay to incomplete; only lower half of body and base-ring
the left and shaping the left side of the ridge. preserved; weathered.
Extremely hard fabric, fired buff on outer face; The sherd in the Student Collection of the Insti
thin matt black slip, overtired on one side of body tute of Archaeology, London, was made available
to brown. Height: 16.1 cm. Width of body: 9.8 cm. for study by Peter J. Parr, who has informed me
Diameter of base: 5.1 cm. that it has no known provenance, though it prob
Weathered and encrusted but intact and com ably came from Palestine. It has the numbers

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 152* ROBERT S. MERRILLEES

and
3[?]027 in pencil and 92 in probably
black belongedI-II
ink. Base-ring to the
juglet. Broad low base-ring The results
with obtained
short, straight,by Jo
Report,
tapering sides. Extremely hard, below,
thin p. 00)
clay with are not t
tiny
white and buff grits, fired
opium
grey being
with orange-brown
scientifically detec
Base-ring
outer face; thin, friable light or other
black-brown container,
slip, matt bu
most
as preserved. Diameter of base comprehensive
:4.5 cm. Whitishand so
attempted.
deposit on inside of base-ring These
and exterior results
of body; he
impressions,
dark undulating stain around as well as
exterior surface of the a
base-ring on one side. remains to be seen, however, wh
Both pieces were undoubtedly
jug had made in Cyprus
any association with t

ABBREVIATIONS

II:Herod the Great through Bar Cochba, New York.

Feliks 1976: J. Feliks, Plant World of the Bible, Jerusalem
(Hebrew).
Kritikos and Papadaki 1967: P.G. Kritikos Sc S.N Papadaki,
'The history of the poppy and of opium and their expansion
in antiquity in the eastern Mediterranean area,' in Bulletin
on Narcotics, XIX N0.3, pp.l7ff.
Merlin 1984: D.M. Merlin, On the Trail of the Ancient
Opium Poppy, London.
Meshorer 1982: Y. Meshorer, Ancient Jewish Coinage.
Rabin 1976: C. Rabin, ",Gall and Wormwood', 'The Choic
est Spices', and 'Poison of Asps'" in Lisonenu. A Journal for
the Study of the Hebrew Language and Cognate Subjects XL,
N0.2, pp.85ff. (Hebrew).
Rabinowitz 1977: L.I. Rabinowitz, Torah and Flora, New
York.
Zohary 1982: M. Zohary, Plants of the Bible, Cambridge.

NOTES

" Rabinowitz 1977, p. 151.

1 Merlin 1984, p. 105. 17 Zohary 1982, p.15.
2 Ibid., pp. 110 ff. " Feliks 1976, pp. 197 f.
' Ibid., pp. 190 ff. " Zohary 1982, p. 186.
4 Ibid., pp. 45 ff., 147 ff. 70 Rabin 1976, p. 85.
5 Ibid. p. 54. 71 Rabin 1976, pp. 90 f.; Zohary 1982, p. 186.
4 Ibid., pp. 159, 180. 77 Feliks 1976, pp. 197 f.
‫ י‬Ibid., p. 180. 73 Merlin 1984, p. 54.
‫ י‬Ibid., pp. 188, 189. 74 Ibid., p. 96.
' Kritikos 8l Papadaki 1967, p. 38; J.C. Kramer Sl M.D. 75 G. Majno, The Healing Hand. Man and Wound in the
Merlin, 'The Use of Psychoactive Drugs in the Ancient Old Ancient World, Cambridge, Mass. 1975, pp. 143, 387 f.
World,' in Discoveries in Pharmacology, I, Amsterdam 74 Rabinowitz 1977, p. 151.
(forthcoming). 77 Kritikos 8l Papadaki 1967, p. 38.
10 Aboda Zara, 2; 2.40d; M. Schwab, Le Talmud deJirusa 77 Merlin 1984, p. 258.
lern, Paris 1890, XI. 195. 29 W.E. Shewell-Cooper, Plants, Flowers and Herbs of the
11 Feliks 1976, pp. 197 f.; Rabin 1976, p. 85. Bible, New Canaan, Conn. 1977, pp. 105 f.
12 Rabinowitz 1977, p. 149. 70 Gesenius' Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testa
" Feliks 1976, p. 200; Rabin 1976, pp. 89 f.; Rabinowitz ment Scriptures translated by Samuel Prideaux Tregelles,
1977, p. 149. Grand Rapids 1950, pp. 75If.
14 Zohary 1982, p. 184. 31 R. Germer, 'Mohn,' in W. Helck Sc E. Otto (eds.),
" Feliks 1976, p. 200; Zohary 1982, p. 186. Lexikon der Ägyptologie, IV, Wiesbaden 1982, cols. 189 f.

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 HIGHS AND LOWS IN THE HOLY LAND: OPIUM IN BIBLICAL TIMES 153*

32 E.g. I. Low, Die Flora der Juden, II, Wien 1924,
pp. 364 f.; A. Reifenberg, Ancient Jewish Coins, Jerusalem
1947, pp. 41 f.
33 Meshorer 1982, pp. 136 ff.
34 Ibid., PI. 1.3, 4, pp. 20 ff.
35 Ibid. pp. 20 ff.; Kritikos 8l Papadaki 1967, pp. 33 f.
34 J.W. Crowfoot et al., Samaria-Sebaste I, The Buildings,
London 1942, pp. 123 ff.
" Meshorer 1982, p. 22.
* R.S. Merrillees, 'Opium again in Antiquity,' Levant 11
(1979), pp. 167 ff.; P. Aström, 'Foreign Relations,' in The
Swedish Cyprus Expedition, IV, Part ID, Lund 1972, p. 751;
G.F. Bass, 'A Bronze Age Shipwreck at Ulu Buran (Ka$):
1984 Campaign,' AJA 90 (1986), pp. 280 f.
" R.S. Merrillees, The Cypriote Bronze Age Pottery Found
in Egypt, Lund 1968, pp. 154 ff.

Report
John Evans
Division of Chemistry, North East London Polytechnic

Introduction
using a series of solvents of varying polarities. In
In the main, knowledge of pottery this
usage in
way not antiq
only is extraction practically complete
uity is based on iconographic representation,
but also each solvent extracts a particular group of
compounds, with
literary sources or where possible analogy making subsequent identification
present day usage. It is therefore at best circum
somewhat simpler.
stantial evidence. Analysis of organic residues
Generally the identification of the isolated com
poundshowever,
trapped within or on the pottery fabric, is a complex task, but the recent advances
in instrumentation have somewhat simplified the
provides the possibility of direct evidence.
exercise. The
The main reason for the slow development in major
the problem in this area is the
small amount
study of such residues is that they usually occurof many
in of the components and
very small amounts. Consequently the more one
consequently tradi
can sometimes only suggest a
tional organic analytical techniques are too
general insensi
origin for a particular residue. However in
tive to obtain useful data. In recent the
years
presentdevelop
investigation, primarily to detect the
ments in chromatography, both thin layer and of opium, this should not be
presence or otherwise
a problem.
instrumental methods, have provided Experience has indicated that the
the present
day archaeochemist with powerful tools with
problem which is not as serious as was first
of exchange
to unlock the secrets of such deposits. These
feared. A recentdevel
study of medieval pot sherds from
opments, coupled with similar ones Exeter(UK)1
in the area has shown
of that contamination by
spectroscopy, have made it possible ground
to investigate
organic substances was minimal, as several
samples contained no detectable substances. How
as little as a milligram of material.
The major problems generally associated with
ever, exchange may well be dependent on age and/
such studies are: first ensuring completeness
or ground conditionsofas other studies2 have shown
extraction. Secondly ascertaining whether there Analysis of surrounding
possible contamination.
has been any substantial exchange of
soilsorganic
is thus a useful
subadjunct to those of the resi
stances between the residue and itsdues.
surrounding
In the present study no soil samples were
environment. Thirdly, the shortage ofavailable
data foron comparison
the but contamination from
decomposition processes involved
thewhen food
surrounding environment by opium seems a
traces etc. have been buried for substantial periods
highly unlikely occurrence.
of time. The problem of decomposition is also less seri
The first of these problems, completeness of ous than was originally supposed. When organic
extraction, has been satisfactorily overcome by substances penetrate the ceramic matrix they

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