Psychedelics and the Ancient Near East history
Like other traditional societies, early villagers in the ancient Near East were familiar with the qualities and effects of their native herbs. Charred plant remains at the early Neolithic site of Tell Abu Hureyra in Syria (10th mill. BCE) make it clear that the inhabitants used a deliberate selection of local plants. Some were highly toxic in their natural state and had to be roasted to become edible, while others were only useful for dyes or medicines.Such intimate knowledge of the natural world accumulated over the following millennia and became part of the traditional folklore on which ancient Near Eastern medicine, like so many others, is based.
The earliest known medical recipes come from the 3rd millennium BCE city of Ebla in Syria. But late 2nd and 1st millennia BCE Mesopotamia is our main source of textual information on what plants were known, which parts were used, how they were processed, mixed and applied, and what purpose they served. We learn that the majority of drugs were plant based, derived from extracts, resins or spices. Plant roots, stems, leaves, seeds, blossoms and fruits were used dry or fresh, ground and sifted, soaked and boiled or smoked.
To render certain drugs more palatable or to enhance their effect, they were often mixed with wine, beer, vinegar, milk, honey and tallow. The resulting concoctions were applied as salves, ingested as potions, powders and pills, or inhaled as fumes in order to treat all manner of ailments, both real and imagined.Certain drugs were prescribed for their mind-altering effects. Some of these brought about sedation, anesthesia or analgesia. Others were administered in order to relieve or overcome inhibition, fear, panic and depression as well as, in the odd instance, to induce hallucinations.
Which mind-altering drugs were used in the ANE?
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