While the world often historically associates the opium trade with the far east, Israeli researchers have found that the highly-potent drug played a major role in biblical times.

 

ed note–this is not merely some piece of tangential trivia possessing little relevance to today, but something that actually implies/implicates how we have managed to find ourselves at the precipice of our own destruction, literally.

 

As we like to point out often here on this humble little informational endeavor, one cannot understand the world as it exists today (and particularly the highly-dysfunctional nature of that ‘existence’) without first understanding this thing known as organized Jewish power (otherwise known by its acronym ‘OJP’) and one cannot understand that ‘OJP’ without first understanding the spiritual energy that drives it, which is the Judah-ism itself.

 

Like all organized religions, Judah-ism is a multi-layered, multi-faceted phenomenon with all sorts of characters, stories, traditions, and of course, rules and regulations that dictate how the follower of this ‘Judah-ism’ is to think and behave. Where it differs from other faiths however is that it is by no means ‘universal’, meaning that it is open to anyone who wants to be part of ‘la famiglia’ as exists with both Christianity and Islam.

 

Put simply, Judah-ism is for Jews, meaning an exclusive ‘membership’ available only to those who claim a physical connection with the tribe of Judah as it is described in the book which this tribe uses as its ‘how-to’ manual, the Torah.

 

Now, within that same Torah–to which the followers of Judah-ism are super-glued in the same manner as an addict is married to his/her drug of choice–are all sorts of fantastic tales involving larger-than-life characters engaging in larger-than-life actions that–to any rational person–would seem unlikely if not outright impossible.

 

And some of these ‘larger-than-life’ characters engaged in these ‘larger-than-life’ actions–like the ‘story’ depicted in this famous painting below–indicate that what all are witnessing here is a crazy person engaged in crazy business.

 

 

The pic tells the story of ‘Abram’ or ‘Abraham’, considered the founding father and the grand poobah of the entire ‘Jewish thing’ holding a knife to the throat of his son Isaac.

 

According to that larger-than-life story appearing in the Torah, Abe heard voices in his head telling him to slit his son’s throat and burn the lifeless body of that murdered son on an altar as ‘proof’ of Abe’s love and devotion to ‘yahweh’, the deity he worshiped.

 

Now, as the story goes, Abe was stopped at the last minute before opening up his son’s jugular with the knife by an angel, and thus, the planned act of human sacrifice was averted.

 

Now, anyone today claiming to hear voices in his/her head instructing him/her to go on some killing spree would be viewed as criminally insane and at some point early in the investigation, the question would be raised exactly what role the use of drugs or alcohol played in all of this.

 

And voila’, as the science now implies/implicates in the story below, indeed drug usage (and not just ANY old drug, but those derived from opium which includes heroin) played a ‘major role’ in ‘biblical times’.

 

Now, as it all relates to the here and now, remember–the same group of people who trace their lineage–their ‘tribe’ if you will–back to the guy featured in the pic above getting ready to open up his son’s jugular RULE THE WORLD with their money, their media, and–lest we forget–all those nukes and biological weapons which they intend to unleash upon the rest of us as ‘proof’ of their love and devotion to the deity they worship and who demands human sacrifice, yahweh.

 

Now, as to the particulars of the story itself, it does not specifically mention the Israelites, Hebrews, Judah-ites, etc as being the primary users of opiates, focusing instead on the Canaanites, the original peoples of the ‘promised land’ whom the Hebrews, Israelites, Judah-ites claim to have massacred in stealing their land and their cities.

 

However, the fact that this little piece was left out of the story, i.e. the Hebrews’ use of opiates, means nothing, for all one need do is to sit down for 5 minutes, begin reading the book of Genesis and one will see in an instant that it is one continuous acid trip that today functions as the narrative around which the followers of Judah-ism base their entire world view.

 

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Residues of opium have been found in pottery vessels excavated at Tel Yehud in modern-day central Israel that date back to the 14th century BCE.

 

According to the researchers at the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), Tel Aviv University (TAU) and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, the Canaanites used the psychoactive drug as an offering for the dead, as the vessels were found in Canaanite graves.

 

The findings were the earliest known evidence of the use of the hallucinogenic drug opium – and psychoactive drugs in general – in the world.

 

The ceramic vessels containing the residues were uncovered in an excavation conducted by Eriola Jakoel on behalf of the IAA. This exciting discovery confirms historical writings and archaeological hypotheses according to which opium and its trade played a central role in the cultures of the Near East, the team said.

 

 

What did the researchers look for?

 

The research was conducted as part of Vanessa Linares’s doctoral thesis, under the guidance of Prof. Oded Lipschits and Prof. Yuval Gadot of TAU’s archaeology department and Prof. Ronny Neumann of the Weizmann Institute, in collaboration with Eriola Jakoel and Dr. Ron Be’eri of the IAA.

 

The study was published in the journal Archaeometry under the title ‘Opium trade and use during the Late Bronze Age: Organic residue analysis of ceramic vessels from the burials of Tel Yehud, Israel.’

 

In 2012, the IAA conducted a salvage excavation at the site before homes could be built there. A number of Canaanite graves from the Late Bronze Age were found and next to them burial offerings – vessels intended to accompany the dead into the afterlife. Among the pottery, a large group of vessels made in Cyprus and referred to in the study as ‘base-ring juglets’ stood out.

 

Because the vessels are similar in shape to the poppy flower when it is closed and upside down, the hypothesis arose already in the 19th century that they were used as ritual vessels for the drug.

 

Now, an organic residue analysis has revealed opium residue in eight vessels, some local and some made in Cyprus. This is the first time that opium has been found in pottery in general, and in base-ring vessels in particular.

 

 

Did males or females smoke more opium back in the day?

 

Most of the bodies buried were those of adults of both sexes. The pottery vessels had been placed within the graves were used for ceremonial meals, rites and rituals performed by the living for their deceased family members. The dead were honored with foods and drinks that were either placed in the vessels or consumed during a feast that took place over the grave at which the deceased was regarded as a participant.

 

It may be that during these ceremonies, conducted by family members or by a priest on their behalf, participants attempted to raise the spirits of their dead relatives in order to express a request and would enter an ecstatic state by using opium. Alternatively, it is possible that the opium placed next to the body was meant to help the person’s spirit rise from the grave in preparation for the meeting with their relatives in the next life, the archaeologists suggested.

 

‘This is the only psychoactive drug that has been found in the Levant in the Late Bronze Age,’ said Linares. In 2020, researchers discovered cannabis residue on an altar in Tel Arad, but this dated back the Iron Age, hundreds of years after the opium in Tel Yehud.

 

Because the opium was found at a burial site, it offers us a rare glimpse into the burial customs of the ancient world. Of course, we do not know what the opium’s role was in the ceremony – whether the Canaanites in Yehud believed that the dead would need opium in the afterlife or whether it was the priests who used the drug for the ceremony.

 

Moreover, the discovery sheds light on the opium trade in general. One must remember that opium is produced from poppies, which grew in Asia Minor – that is, in the territory of current-day Turkey – while the pottery in which we identified the opium were made in Cyprus. In other words, the opium was brought to Yehud from Turkey through Cyprus; this of course indicates the importance that was attributed to the drug.’

 

‘Until now, no written sources have been discovered that describe the exact use of narcotics in burial ceremonies, so we can only speculate what was done with opium,’ Be’eri concluded. ‘From documents that were discovered in the Ancient Near East, it appears that the Canaanites attached great importance to ‘satisfying the needs of the dead’ through ritual ceremonies performed for them by the living, and believed that in return, the spirits would ensure the health and safety of their living relatives.’

 

‘From documents that were discovered in the Ancient Near East, it appears that the Canaanites attached great importance to ‘satisfying the needs of the dead’ through ritual ceremonies performed for them by the living, and believed that in return, the spirits would ensure the health and safety of their living relatives.’

 

According to IAA director Eli Eskosido, ‘new scientific capabilities have opened a window for us to fascinating information and have provided us with answers to questions that we never would have dreamed of finding in the past. One can only imagine what other information we will be able to extract from the underground discoveries that will emerge in the future.’

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