Ancient Egyptians’ Use of Intoxicants
In the previous post, Biomedical Egyptology, we saw how the team at the University of Manchester are using multidisciplinary, investigative methods using tissue and hair samples of ancient Egyptian Mummies to scientifically analyse and understand ancient Egyptian pharmacy and pharmacology.
Earlier I mentioned the analysis of hair samples from mummies undertaken by toxicologist Dr Svetla Balabanova. The results indicated the presence of nicotine and cocaine, drugs that are thought not to have existed in Ancient Egypt.
The initial response from Egyptologists was that the presence of these drugs in the results must have been due to contamination as it was impossible for either tobacco of cocoa to be present in ancient Egypt, these plants being found only in the Americas at that time.
In 1994 the documentary ‘Mystery of the Cocaine Mummies’ was made which featured Dr Balabanova discussing her work on the mummy samples. In response to the suggestions on contamination she went back and did a hair shaft test. Anything and everything that is consumed during our lives gets into our hair protein. Our past diet is locked up in a permanent record in our hair shafts. The hair shaft test is considered to be very strong evidence in forensic science, so much so that it is regularly used these days to convict drug users.
As Dr John Henry, a consultant Toxicologist at Guys Hospital in London states in the documentary:
“The hair shaft test is accepted. If you know that you’ve taken your hair sample from this individual and the hair shaft is known to contain a drug, then it is proof positive that the person has taken that drug. So it is accepted in law. It’s put people into prison.”
Dr Svetla Balabonova from the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Ulm adds:
“There’s no way there can be a mistake in this test. This method is widely accepted and has been used thousands of times. If the results are not genuine, then the explanation must lie elswhere, and not in my tests, because I’m 100 percent certain about the results.”
Rosalie David, Keeper of Egyptology at the Manchester Museum was interviewed in the documentary and gave her response:
“There were two ideas that sprang immediately to mind. One was that possibly something in the tests could give a false result. The second was that possibly the mummies that had been tested were not truly ancient Egyptian, that they could be some of these false, relativly modern mummies, and traces of cocaine could be in those individuals.”
Rosalie David later concluded that it was her opinion that mummy that the samples were taken from most likely was authentic. Perhaps the presence of these drugs could be explained another way. Perhaps these substances were present in other plants that grew in ancient Africa which the ancient Egyptians had used but had since vanished from the continent.
Later in the documentary the lotus flower is mentioned as being used by the ancient Egyptians as a narcotic.
Rosalie David again:
“The lotus was a very powerful narcotic which was used in ancient Egypt and presumably, was widespread in this use, because we see many scenes of individuals holding a cup and dropping a lotus flower into the cup which contained wine, and this would be a way of releasing the narcotic.
“The ancient Egyptians certainly used drugs. As well as lotus they had mandrake and cannabis, and there is a strong suggestion the also used opium.
“So although it very surprising to find cocaine in mummies, the other elements were certainly in use.”
Rosalie David tackles this topic again in her book Egyptian Mummies and Modern Science, referring directly to the ‘Mystery of the Cocaine Mummies’ documentary. You can read excerpts from the book online here: Egyptian Mummies and Modern Science
The blue lotus, or blue water lily, (Nymphaea caerulea) features prominently in Egyptian reliefs and artwork, particularly on the walls of the Temple of Karnak. I came across a video on the web that documents an experiment in which the Blue Lilly was grown and processed to extract it’s active ingredients. Two volunteers then take the resulting extract and are monitored to gauge the effects of the Blue Lilly.
Watch the Blue Water Lily video.
If you are interested in this field of study I strongly recommend getting a copy of Rosalie David’s book and also subscribing to the Manchester University’s high quality podcast from iTunes.
Sources:
Documentary: Biochemical Egyptology
American Drugs in Egyptian Mummies, by S. A. Wells
Transcript of ‘The Mystery of the Cocaine Mummies’
Egyptian Mummies and Modern Science by Rosalie David and Patrica Lambert-Zazulak.
Blue Water Lily video.
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Tags: mummies, technology
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What an interesting post, so the upshot is that we are still not 100% its coke, but nothing else is known to give this result.
I liked reading your blog…keep up the good work.