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An Israeli shrine may have hosted the first ritual use of marijuana | Science News
Chemical analyses of residue from an altar reveal a cannabis–animal dung mixture
A limestone altar from an Iron Age shrine in Israel contains remnants of the world’s earliest known instance of burning cannabis plants in a ritual ceremony, a new study finds.
This altar, along with a second altar on which frankincense was burned, stood at the entrance to a room where religious rites were presumably held inside a fortress of the biblical kingdom of Judah. Previous analyses of recovered pottery and documented historical events at the site indicate that the shrine was used from roughly 760 B.C. to 715 B.C.
Excavations at Israel’s Tel Arad site in the 1960s uncovered the shrine amid the ruins of two fortress cities, one built atop the other, that date from the ninth century B.C. to the early sixth century B.C. Arad, about 45 kilometers west of the Dead Sea, guarded Judah’s southern border.
Chemical analyses of dark material on the two altars’ upper surfaces conducted in the late 1960s proved inconclusive. Using modern laboratory devices, a team led by archaeologist Eran Arie of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem and bioarchaeologist Dvory Namdar of Israel’s Agricultural Research Organization – Volcani Center in Bet-Dagan analyzed chemical components of residues on each altar.
Cannabis on the smaller of the two altars had been mixed with animal dung so it could be burned at a low temperature, likely allowing ritual specialists to inhale the plant’s mind-altering fumes, the researchers report online May 29 in Tel Aviv, a journal published by Tel Aviv University’s Institute of Archaeology. This cannabis sample contained enough of the plant’s psychoactive compound THC to have induced an altered state of consciousness by breathing in its fumes.
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Funny to run into this. Some years ago I had heard that orthodox Jews in Brooklyn, NY used marijuana, probably as part of a religious ritual. A Jewish woman from that area, however, had no knowledge of that use & dismissed it out of hand.
Personally, I'll skip the dung part & stay an agnostic former pot smoker.
See Cannabis and Judaism - Wikipedia
Fiddler on the Roof: Tradition YouTube
Chemical analyses of residue from an altar reveal a cannabis–animal dung mixture
A limestone altar from an Iron Age shrine in Israel contains remnants of the world’s earliest known instance of burning cannabis plants in a ritual ceremony, a new study finds.
This altar, along with a second altar on which frankincense was burned, stood at the entrance to a room where religious rites were presumably held inside a fortress of the biblical kingdom of Judah. Previous analyses of recovered pottery and documented historical events at the site indicate that the shrine was used from roughly 760 B.C. to 715 B.C.
Excavations at Israel’s Tel Arad site in the 1960s uncovered the shrine amid the ruins of two fortress cities, one built atop the other, that date from the ninth century B.C. to the early sixth century B.C. Arad, about 45 kilometers west of the Dead Sea, guarded Judah’s southern border.
Chemical analyses of dark material on the two altars’ upper surfaces conducted in the late 1960s proved inconclusive. Using modern laboratory devices, a team led by archaeologist Eran Arie of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem and bioarchaeologist Dvory Namdar of Israel’s Agricultural Research Organization – Volcani Center in Bet-Dagan analyzed chemical components of residues on each altar.
Cannabis on the smaller of the two altars had been mixed with animal dung so it could be burned at a low temperature, likely allowing ritual specialists to inhale the plant’s mind-altering fumes, the researchers report online May 29 in Tel Aviv, a journal published by Tel Aviv University’s Institute of Archaeology. This cannabis sample contained enough of the plant’s psychoactive compound THC to have induced an altered state of consciousness by breathing in its fumes.
======================================================
Funny to run into this. Some years ago I had heard that orthodox Jews in Brooklyn, NY used marijuana, probably as part of a religious ritual. A Jewish woman from that area, however, had no knowledge of that use & dismissed it out of hand.
Personally, I'll skip the dung part & stay an agnostic former pot smoker.
See Cannabis and Judaism - Wikipedia
Fiddler on the Roof: Tradition YouTube
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