Ancient Peoples in the Kingdom of Judah May Have Used Cannabis in Temples

Translated from Live Science

More than 2,700 years ago, worshippers at a "holy of holies" shrine in Israel may have used marijuana. Researchers discovered burned Cannabis and incense at the site, located in the Kingdom of Judah.

Researchers made the discovery after analyzing ancient residues left on two altars of the shrine. The burned Cannabis is "the first known evidence of a hallucinogenic substance found in the Kingdom of Judah," a region that now includes parts of the West Bank and central Israel, the researchers wrote in the study.

After the Cannabis was burned at the Iron Age site, "we can assume that the altered state of religious consciousness in this shrine was an important part of the ceremonies that took place here," said researcher Eran Arie, curator of Iron Age and Persian period archaeology at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, to Live Science.

Archaeologists first excavated the site in the 1960s; they unearthed two fortresses, dated from the ninth to the early sixth century B.C., that flanked the southern border of the Kingdom of Judah. During these excavations, archaeologists found a well-preserved shrine, dating from 750 B.C. to 715 B.C.

At the entrance of the shrine, there were two limestone altars, one 40 cm tall and the other 50 cm tall. Each altar featured a shallow depression containing "round mounds of solidified black organic material," the researchers wrote in the study. Based on the characteristics of the altars, the researchers concluded that this was a "holy of holies" shrine, intended to evoke the inner sanctuary of the Israelite Tabernacle, where it was believed God appeared. Tests of this black material in the 1960s yielded almost inconclusive results, noting only that one group contained animal fat.

Arie decided to reanalyze this black material, mainly because some residue still remained on the altars. He joined co-researcher Dvory Namdar, a senior researcher at the Volcani Center for Agricultural Research in Israel. Namdar specializes in analyzing residues of ancient burned incense, but "we never thought we would reveal such a surprising discovery" as Cannabis, Arie said.

However, Namdar was concerned that the sample might have been contaminated. At the time, she was working in a lab conducting research on cannabinoids. Thus, the researchers "resampled the altars and verified the results in another lab at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem," Arie said. "The results were the same."

Ceremonial Burning

The new tests revealed that the smaller altar contained burned marijuana and animal dung. It appears that "animal dung was used as fuel [to burn] the marijuana," Arie said. The dung burns more slowly than herbs, which would have delayed the burning process, he said.

The taller altar contained remnants of incense and animal fat, which would have promoted the evaporation of the aromatic resin from the tree. It is the oldest evidence that incense was used in a cultic practice in the Kingdom of Judah, Arie said.

Both discoveries provide insights into cultic practices in the Kingdom of Judah. In particular, the discovery of Cannabis indicates that people may have intentionally used the plant for its "hallucinogenic ingredients" to induce ecstasy during cultic ceremonies, at least during the eighth century B.C., Arie said.

The practices at this shrine may also shed light on the First Temple, also known as Solomon's Temple, which was also in the Kingdom of Judah and was used at the same time. The shrine in Arad "was an official shrine of the Kingdom of Judah," Arie said, so it is possible that these discoveries could be "extra-biblical evidence" that similar practices were used in the First Temple, Arie said.

In other words, the Bible mentions that incense was burned in the First Temple, but because this shrine used Cannabis and incense, these substances "were probably also (at least) part of the components of the incense that was burned in the Temple in Jerusalem," Arie said.

Purchasing Around

Where did these burned ingredients originate? Incense comes from Arabia, so it is likely that the Kingdom of Judah participated in trade in southern Arabia, even before the Assyrian empire encouraged such practices starting in 701 B.C., the researchers said. Moreover, it likely was not cheap. "The high value of incense is further reflected in the Bible, where its price is compared several times to the price of gold and precious stones, and it is often described as a royal treasure," the researchers wrote in the study.

Marijuana, on the other hand, is not native to the Middle East. Instead, marijuana originated in the Tibetan plateau, according to a study on fossil pollen. Furthermore, there are no marijuana seeds or pollen remnants in the archaeological record of ancient Mesopotamia. Therefore, it is possible that Cannabis plants "may have been imported from distant origins and transported as dried resin (commonly known as hashish)," the researchers wrote in the study.

The new discovery "is groundbreaking in advocating for the use of psychoactive plants in ancient Israelite religion," said Patrick McGovern, scientific director of the Biomolecular Archaeology Project at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia, who was not involved in the study.

However, McGovern said the study could have delved deeper into the findings about marijuana. "The suggestion that Cannabis was heated to release psychoactive compounds, and not for its aroma as incense (provided by the incense, in any case), is an intriguing proposal," he said.

It is interesting that the Hebrew Bible does not seem to mention the use of marijuana and that there is no known archaeobotanical evidence for the plant at the shrine, he noted. That said, it may not be an exaggeration, given that people in the Kingdom of Judah used another mind-altering substance in rituals, namely alcohol, McGovern said. The study does not mention "the psychoactive properties of grape wine, which we know played a central role in ancient Israelite religion," McGovern said.

The study was published online on Thursday (May 28) in the journal Tel Aviv.