1992 Forensic expert Svetlana Balabanova was engaged in routine work. She examined the mummy. I took samples of hair, tissues, bones. She turned them into powder. I treated it with a solution and, along the way, examined it for the presence of drugs. She has performed this procedure hundreds of times. However, something unexpected happened that day
"Shock! she recalls. "I was absolutely sure it was some kind of mistake." No, of course, traces of their use of cocaine, nicotine and hashish are quite often found in the tissues of people, but the whole question is whose body tissues she studied.
In front of her lay the mummy of a man who died three thousand years ago, during the 21st Egyptian dynasty. Having examined the mummies of eight more Egyptians who lived in 1070 BC. - AD 395, she discovered that all these people were lovers of excesses that ruined millions of our contemporaries. They all smoked (or sniffed) tobacco, all were familiar with cocaine and hashish. Can you really believe it?
Coca bushes - huge, evergreen, 2–3 m high - at that time were found only in the mountainous tropical forests of South America. It is generally accepted that we can tolerately imagine how the world was seen by a person of ancient or, for example, Egyptian civilization. For him, the land where coca and tobacco grew was not even over the seven seas and not in the distant kingdom. No, she lay in a world that did not exist at all and from which neither legends nor rumors reached the inhabitants of the Old World.
… The discovery was like a bomb exploding. In an instant, the ancient Egyptians - architects, scribes, poets - turned into miserable burners of life, smokers and marathon lovers, always ready to expand and hang around. The research results shook the entire building of historical science. Balabanova received dozens of letters. Their authors were indignant, lamented, ridiculed.
The main idea of the messages was: "All your research is complete nonsense, because until the voyage of Columbus, tobacco and coca could not be found in any country of the Old World."
The coca bush was introduced to Europe in 1569 by the Spanish physician Nicolae Monardes. Tobacco was also initially brought to the Iberian Peninsula. The French physician Jean Nico de Villemin (1530-1600), being a messenger at the court of Lisbon, drew attention to one plant brought from America. He soon became convinced that this plant is amazingly invigorating. He incessantly praised its healing properties. It went down in the history of science under the name of a person, through whose efforts it settled in Europe. He was named Herba nicotiana.
Will history have to be "rewritten"? In recent years, a few more strange facts have come to light:
• In the Nubian desert, scientists often find the bodies of people who naturally turned into mummies. Traces of nicotine have recently been found in the tissues of some of them. The age of these mummies is from 1000 to 2600 years.
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• Recently, German scientists investigated an Egyptian mummy that was kept in a museum in Munich (its age is 3000 years). Again, a collection of herbal poisons popular in our time was found: nicotine, cocaine, hashish.
• Another group of scientists carefully studied the large collection of natural mummies found in Nubia. Was examined 71 mummies of people who lived from 1400 to 3100 years ago. It turned out that fifty-six people, i.e. 80 percent apparently used cocaine during their lifetime. How did he get to Egypt? It is known that the ancient Egyptian doctors were skilled healers. They knew the properties of the most exotic herbs. In the fight against illnesses that caused severe pain, for example, with flux or radiculitis, they prescribed all kinds of drugs to their patients in large quantities. Of course, they could not help but know that a person who is accustomed to opium would continue to suffer without it. However, in those distant times, doctors had a dissenting opinion. The main thing is that a person does not suffer from pain, and what he will amuse himself with is all the same. In everyday life, the Egyptians often drank intoxicating juices, intoxicating herbs and roots. So, opium - milky poppy juice - they even gave to children so that they would not annoy over trifles.
In total, according to scientists, the Egyptians knew about eight hundred drugs. However, modern biologists were able to identify only a small part of them, because descriptions (and images of plants) are often stylized and so inaccurate that it seems that the authors of other drawings and texts took up their work only after taking a fair dose of "some substance".
But with opium, everything is clear. Poppy grows in the Old World. But what about "American inclusions" in the bodies of the Nubians and Egyptians? Is it possible to somehow explain their appearance without forcing historians to rewrite the picture of the world known to them?
Scientists have been looking for an explanation for eighty years. In 1922, the tomb of Tutankhamun was excavated; it was found not only "the gold of the Pharaohs", but also the dried body of a tobacco beetle. This insect eats, as the name suggests, tobacco. In 1976, while examining the mummy of Ramses II (he died around 1251 BC), French scientists found not only tobacco beetles, but also tobacco particles. Objections immediately rained down. Here is how they were summed up by Professor Nazri Iskander, the chief curator of the Cairo Museum: "Probably, some of the archaeologists, examining the tomb, accidentally spilled tobacco." However, this excuse does not explain all the facts. According to Svetlana Balabanova, she found samples of substances "inappropriate" for the Egyptians even under a layer of resin applied during embalming. You cannot accidentally sprinkle tobacco there. Besides,these substances were extracted with tweezers from the most inaccessible corners of the abdominal cavity.
Old-school Egyptologists ignore these strange discoveries and come up with the most unnatural explanations. For example, the German researcher Renata Germer wrote in 1985 in the book "The Flora of Egypt in the Time of the Pharaohs" that the mummy of Ramses II was probably back in the 19th century. They swaddled them and examined: "That's when tobacco accidentally got inside the mummy." After all, not a single plant of the genus Nicotiana was found in Egypt, Africa, or any other country with which the Egyptians could trade.
However, twenty years ago, an African species of tobacco, Nicotiana africana, was discovered in Namibia.
It is also interesting that Peter Forskal, compiler of the first catalog of Egyptian flora, prepared in 1761, described tobacco in it not only as a useful culture for people, but also as a wild plant that penetrated far from the shores of the Red Sea into the Libyan desert. According to a number of modern scientists, in some two centuries that have passed since the “medicine” called tobacco was introduced into the Old World, this plant could hardly have spread so quickly throughout Egypt.
And here are the explanations of other authors. Tobacco has good bactericidal properties; it protects against decay. Therefore, the Egyptians used it for mummification and fumigated the premises with it. It is possible that the Egyptians themselves smoked tobacco. In the vicinity of Giza, clay pipes were discovered dating back to 2000–1700. BC.
People who express such ideas almost always add another one to them: "Obviously, the Egyptians maintained trade relations with the peoples of South America, or at least made voyages there." We will discuss this version later, but for now let's return to the story about nicotine found in ancient mummies.
Nicotine is an alkaloid found in tobacco in 1571 (its content in tobacco reaches 8 percent). This poisonous (in large doses) substance was named after the French diplomat Jean Nico. However, in our time, scientists have learned that nicotine is contained not only in tobacco, but also in some plants common for the Old World: for example, in the spotted arum, Syrian wolf, marsh tails, stonecrop, baloon, some types of roses, asters, nightshades and even in nettles. Of course, almost all of these plants contain much less nicotine than tobacco. Perhaps, nicotine is found in some other species of flora known to us, because it was not purposefully searched for. Our current need for nicotine is completely satisfied by tobacco. The Egyptians did not have such an opportunity, as most scholars believe,and therefore traces of nicotine in mummies and pyramids have a different vegetable origin.
What about cocaine? Maybe he came to the Egyptians "in a different dress" - under the guise of a completely different plant?
Alas, the botanists have no answer yet.
One can console the supporters of the tradition that separates Egypt from America with an insurmountable barrier, only by the fact that “until now we have not seriously looked for plants containing cocaine in any, arbitrarily small doses,” adds S. Balabanova.
In principle, only two species out of three hundred members of the Erythroxylaceae family contain some noticeable amounts of the alkaloid cocaine. These are coca (Erythroxylum coca) and erythroxylum Colombian (Erythroxylum novagranatense). Coca leaves (coca bush) contain from 0.5 to 2.5 percent cocaine (this figure varies in different parts of America). There are 305 calories in 100 g of fresh coca leaves.
In addition to alkaloids, its leaves contain vitamins, proteins, fats, iron, calcium and various minerals. In the Andes, coca is cultivated and eaten quite legally, as this nutritious plant has fed the Indians for centuries.
(First of all, cocaine in its pure form is dangerous. It is its use that leads to drug addiction. In 1860, the German chemist Albert Niemann first isolated pure cocaine, and in 1923 this substance was finally synthesized. Cocaine stimulates the central nervous system and affects the circulation neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin.)
For a long time, scientists could not even find a wild-growing form of the coca bush. Only in 1983, Timothy Plowman, a botanist from Chicago, having surveyed the wilderness of South America, "made significant progress towards identifying wild coca," notes cocaine historian Joseph Kennedy. According to Plowman, the ancestor of all cocaine plants is Erythroxylum coca var. coca, or Bolivian coca (also called guanuco). I would like to add: "It is until the next opening." Indeed, in the vast kingdom of flora, inhabited by hundreds of thousands of wild and cultivated plant species, it is often extremely difficult to determine the origin of a particular species.
Perhaps scientists will still find somewhere in Africa or Asia a plant that brings cocaine, but another question arises: "Could the Egyptians have brought cocaine from overseas - from America?"
Of course, it is not yet scientifically proven that the inhabitants of Egypt have been to the New World.
But hypotheses have been expressed more than once. Back in 1910, anthropologists, discussing the step pyramids of Mexico, concluded that perhaps their design was not an invention of the American Indians. They adopted this technology from their "neighbors" who lived on the other side of the ocean: in Egypt.
There were many similarities: the design of the pyramids; the custom to bury the dead in them; worship of the sun god; accurate knowledge of mathematics and astronomy - the latter was necessary for shipbuilders ready to embark on a long journey. Comparing all these data, scientists came to the conclusion: the civilization was born in Egypt; from there it spread to all other regions of the planet. This is how the scientific school of "diffusionists" was born (from the word "diffusion" - "distribution", "mixing", "penetration"). Their opponents, who argued that there could be no connection between Africa and South America, were called "isolationists."
Norwegian ethnologist Thor Heyerdahl back in 1969 and 1970. proved that the papyrus boats of the Egyptians could cross the Atlantic. Like him, the ancient inhabitants of Africa could well have come to America. Another thing is whether they embarked on long voyages. And here one of the pages of the ancient history of Egypt comes to mind - a trip to the country of Punt.
The inhabitants of the land of the pharaohs knew the way there for almost two thousand years: from 2900 to 1075. BC. (Remember that the Vikings, a thousand years ago, also knew the way to America - to Vinland - but then they forgot it; so it is not surprising that people suddenly lose vast layers of geographical knowledge.)
The country of Punt was far from Egypt. The journey there lasted three to four years. You could get there only by sea.
The most famous was probably the trip to Punt of the Egyptian queen Hatshepsut, who ruled at the end of the 16th century. BC. In the ninth year of her reign, she equipped an expedition there. Historians place the country Punt, as a rule, in Somalia, but if their story is impartial, the country may be in South America.
Punt was famous for its luxury goods and valuable raw materials.
The Egyptians could take out precious stones and metals, amazing wood, wild animals and aromatic resins from there. On a long voyage, Hatshepsut equipped only five ships, but they all returned home loaded to the brim with goods. They carried gold, silver, precious woods, incense, antimony, as well as animals - monkeys and wild felines: “The ships are loaded very heavily … with all sorts of beautiful plants of the Earth of God, a heap of resin … pure gold Amu, tishepes and hesit trees, ichmut incense … numerous skins of leopards”. Most of the goods delivered to Egypt could well be purchased not only in Africa, but also in America. Modern enthusiasts of long-distance expeditions, referring to the inventory of goods, tried to prove that the country of Punt was not at all in Somalia, not in South Arabia and not in Mozambique, as he believed at the beginning of the 20th century. German traveler Karl Peters, while in South America. Or rather, in Peru. However, the inscriptions left by the Egyptians contradict this version. Among gold, silver, wood and incense, ivory was also brought to the land of the pharaohs.
There was no way this product could be taken out of America - only from Africa or India. Here are the lines that tug at the dreamers: “The ships are loaded very heavily … with ebony and pure ivory.” However, the traditional opinion about this voyage of Hatshepsut also raises questions. Was the difficult and long journey that the Egyptians embarked on under the command of their brave queen aimed at the neighboring country of Somalia? With the same success one can imagine Fyodor Konyukhov, who decided to make "the most difficult voyage - from Moscow to Saratov"! It is quite possible that the "large sea ships", on which the Egyptians set out, carried them far beyond the Great Green (as the Egyptians called the Red Sea) of the familiar sea. They could find this "foreign country, which is unknown to people" much further south - there,where it was already advised to look for it at the beginning of the 20th century: near the mouth of the Zambezi River, in South Africa, where antimony is mined.
Maybe you should continue your search?
The inscriptions carved on the wall of the Deir el-Bahri temple accurately say that the travelers "crossed the sea." Sailing along the African continent is not like crossing the sea. If you mentally set the ships on their way, then why not give them the order "one to the east, the other to the west." In both cases, the mariners will “cross the sea”. Having passed the Mediterranean Sea, and then Gibraltar, the ships will find themselves in the Atlantic Ocean and, carried away by the equatorial current, following from east to west, will reach the shores of America. Otherwise, they could have passed the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden and ended up in the Arabian Sea, and from there sail to India. There would be pure ivory, incense, and monkeys in this country. The monsoon wind would push the ships along, helping to reach the target. One might even assumethat, taking into account the wind rose, the Egyptians set sail in early July.
In Western India and modern Pakistan, the royal expedition would have ports in which warehouses, partly filled with goods, partly designated for them, would await guests. Indian historian Anil Mulhandani notes: "The finds made during the excavations prove that the local people had a lively trade with the Egyptians and the cities of Mesopotamia."
The voyages to the country of Punt began in the III millennium BC. Four and a half thousand years ago there were many towns and villages on the banks of the Indus. Products were brought here from coastal regions, metals from remote areas of Hindustan, precious stones from Burma or China. At that time, local merchants set out on a journey in boats or carts. They even reached Sumer by sea and carried to their country much of what they liked on a visit. This is how stable trade relations were established between the countries adjacent to the Indian Ocean.
Still about 2300 BC. The Egyptians received indigo dye from India, and cinnamon from China (!). Why not assume that the merchants imported from a distant country hashish, or Indian hemp, as well as a species of coca bush or other plant unknown to science that contained cocaine in small doses?
In the inscriptions the mysterious phrase is repeated several times: "Hathor, mistress of Punta."
Hathor is one of the main Egyptian goddesses, daughter of the sun god Ra. Why did the author of the inscriptions persistently connect her name with the country of Punt? What was special about Hathor? A woman as a woman, only, like all Egyptian gods, she combined the features of man and animal. Hathor had … horns and large cow ears, and sometimes a cow's head. A foreigner, seeing her, could call her a "sacred cow." The country of Hathor is the country of the “sacred cow”. Asks for the language: "India!" Indeed, by the time of Hatshepsut's voyage, the north of India was populated by a new people - the Aryans, and a horse and a cow were their sacred animals.
The voyages to the Punt country ended in the 11th century. BC. At this time, in Africa, camel caravans were increasingly used to transport goods - precious stones, gold, incense. They brought them to the land of the pharaohs from Yemen, where these goods were brought by ships from India.
For centuries, people have made discoveries and forgot them. Books - keepers of the past - very often fell prey to fire. The fires killed someone's maps, compiled at the cost of their lives, travel reports. The fire of the Library of Alexandria, and other disasters, destroyed the unique geographical archives.
Where is the continuity of generations here? Scientists had to rediscover what their ancestors once knew. The history of science is full of “marking time” or false hobbies, and the reason for this is the loss of knowledge. This is how the link of times breaks down.
We have simplified the past, made it clear, precise, straightforward. Therefore, any unexpected fact is surprising. Oh really? Is it possible? "There must have been a mistake!"
Studying the distant past, we sometimes remind sailors who, having gone on an expedition, are afraid to lose sight of the coast. To any reports that there are floating mountains of ice, coral reefs, terrible storms, they reply: “It can't be! How long I live, I don’t remember that.” With the same surprise, the public meets new reports of strange finds.
"Cocaine in mummies?" Nonsense! And this drug continues to be found in the tombs of the kings, and in the mummies of the poor, caught in death in the desert.
In the Brazilian bay, ancient vessels were found about three thousand years old. Colossal statues in Mexico depict "Negroid", bearded people who do not look like the native Indian population. The goddess, seated in one of the temples of South India, holds maize (corn) in her hand.
Indeed, the travels of people on our planet are much more interesting and mysterious than the imaginary voyages of aliens! If in 1348 the entire European civilization had perished from the plague, then African historians of the XXI century, considering a strange manuscript found somewhere in the territory of former Italy and signed with the words "Marco Polo", would have taken this story about a Venetian who became suddenly an important Chinese tangerine.
It is becoming more and more obvious that modern archeology, despite all its successes, clearly underestimates the real possibilities of archaic cultures. The alleged "isolation" of Egypt on the map of the Ancient World was in reality the "isolation" of Egyptology from other sciences.
