It would seem that history has highlighted the accents long ago. We know well the range of cultivated plants known to one or another people of the Ancient World. The people of the Middle East grew wheat and barley, laying the foundations for the Old World economy. In India, bananas and taro were cultivated, a herb that produced tubers weighing up to four kilograms.
In ancient Europe, the same wheat, barley, as well as beans, lentils, olives, and grapes took root. However, studies of Egyptian mummies are surprising and perplexing. In the past decade, more than once reported strange findings, convincing that the Egyptians may have known … cocaine and nicotine. Was tobacco and coca “imported” from America?
Cocaine-nicotine mummies
Among the plants known to one or another people of the ancient world, neither cocaine nor tobacco could be found. For the Greeks and Egyptians, the land where these "flowers of artificial evil" grew did not even lie beyond the seven seas and not in the distant kingdom. No, she was in a world that did not exist at all and from which neither legends nor rumors flew to the inhabitants of the Old World.
The builders of the American pyramids, obviously, could reinforce their forces with cocaine, but how it ended up in the body of the Egyptian builders is anyone's guess. The facts stubbornly say the following.
Back in 1976, while examining the mummy of Ramses II, French scientists found traces of nicotine. Objections immediately rained down. Their meaning boiled down to the following: "Obviously, some of the archaeologists, examining the tomb, accidentally spilled tobacco."
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In 1992, Russian researcher Svetlana Balabanova discovered traces of cocaine, nicotine and hashish in nine Egyptian mummies dating from 1000 BC - 400 AD. According to her, she found samples of substances "not allowed" to the Egyptians even under the layer of resin applied during embalming. You cannot accidentally sprinkle tobacco there. In addition, these substances were extracted with tweezers from the most inaccessible corners of the abdominal cavity.
In 1994, while examining the mummy of a 30-35-year-old man who lived at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC, scientists found a large amount of hashish in his lungs, and cocaine and nicotine in his stomach and liver. This suggests that the Egyptians smoked hashish, while the plants containing cocaine and nicotine were chewed or even eaten.
Employees of the University of Munich examined an Egyptian mummy that was kept in one of the city's museums (its age is 3000 years). Again, a collection of herbal poisons popular in our time was found: nicotine, cocaine, hashish.
In the Nubian desert, the bodies of people who have naturally turned into mummies are often found. Traces of nicotine were found in the tissues of some of them. The age of these mummies is from 1000 to 2600 years.
Another group of scientists carefully examined the collection of natural mummies also found in Nubia. Was examined 71 mummies of people who lived from 1400 to 3100 years ago. To everyone's surprise, it turned out that fifty-six people, that is, 80 percent, apparently used cocaine during their lifetime.
Where does this wealth come from? What kind of horse was carrying the rubbish so respected today to the Egyptian country?
Until now, scientists were sure that until the voyage of Columbus, tobacco and coca could not be found in any country of the Old World. So, the coca bush was introduced to Europe in 1569 by the Spanish doctor Nicholas Monardes. Tobacco was also initially introduced to the Iberian Peninsula.
In the 16th century, French physician Jean Nico de Villemin, being a messenger at the Lisbon court, drew attention to a plant brought from America. He soon became convinced that it was amazingly invigorating. The physician incessantly praised its healing properties. It is not without reason that it entered the history of science under the name of a person, through whose efforts it settled in Europe. It was named: Herba nicotiana (Ordinary tobacco).
Ordinary tobacco.
The Egyptians were skilled doctors. They researched the properties of the most exotic herbs, well versed in their harmful or beneficial effects. In the fight against ailments that caused severe pain - for example, with a flux or radiculitis - they prescribed their patients in large quantities all kinds of drugs available to their attention.
Opium has been known to mankind for at least the last 6 thousand years. Of course, they could not help but know that a person accustomed to opium would continue to suffer without it. However, in those fabulous times, doctors had a special opinion. The main thing is that the patient does not suffer, 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, they were happy to give opium even to children, so that they would not annoy over trifles.
In total, according to scientists, the Egyptians knew about eight hundred plants that have a certain narcotic effect. 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, the authors of other drawings and texts took up their work, only taking a fair dose of "some substance".
Opium is clear. Dreams inspired by him were seen by both the Romans and the Greeks. 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 they know?
Investigation
Nicotine is an alkaloid that was discovered in 1571 in a plant like tobacco. Its concentration in tobacco reaches eight percent. Nowadays, scientists know that nicotine is found not only in tobacco, but also in some common plants of the Old World. You can name, for example, spotted arum, Syrian wolf, marsh horsetail, sedum, lyre, some types of roses, asters, nightshades and even nettles.
Of course, almost all of these plants contain nicotine in microscopic doses; it is much less than in tobacco. Perhaps, nicotine is found in some other species of flora known to us, because it was not purposefully searched for. Our present need for it is fully satisfied by tobacco.
The Egyptians could not help but love nicotine. It has good bactericidal properties; it protects against decay. It can be used for mummification and fumigation of contaminated premises. According to most scholars, the Egyptians could not grow tobacco. This means that traces of nicotine in mummies and pyramids are of a different plant origin.
What about cocaine? Maybe he got to the Egyptians "in a different guise" - under the guise of another plant?
Alas, the nerds don't know the answer yet. One can console the supporters of the scientific tradition, which 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 appreciable 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. The nutritional value of fresh coca leaves reaches 305 calories per 100 grams of coca.
Coca bush (Erythroxylum coca).
In addition to alkaloids, these 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. Pure cocaine is dangerous. It is his use that leads to drug addiction.
For a long time, scientists could not find a wild-growing form of coca bush. Only in 1983, the American botanist Timothy Plowman, exploring the wilderness of South America, "made significant headway towards finding wild coca," experts say. According to Plowman, the ancestor of all cocaine plants is Erythroxylum coca Var. Sosa, or Bolivian coca.
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 sometimes extremely difficult to determine the origin of a particular species.
On ships across the Persian Gulf
Perhaps scientists will still find a plant containing cocaine somewhere in the Old World. And here one of the obscure pages of the ancient history of Egypt comes to mind - a trip to the country of Punt.
The people of Egypt remembered the way there for almost two thousand years: in the III-II millennia BC. The country of Punt was far from the land of the pharaohs. The trip there could take three to four years. They traveled partly by land, and partly by water, or only by sea.
The most famous one was probably the trip to Punt of the Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut. In the ninth year of her reign, she equipped an expedition there. In memory of this campaign, inscriptions and reliefs are carved on the wall of the Deir el-Bahri temple.
Historians place the country Punt, as a rule, in Somalia. However, some of the messages of the Egyptian chroniclers are very strange. Thus, Pierre Monte, with reference to the will of Ramesses III ("The Great Papyrus of Harris") and the stele of Thutmose I, mentions the voyage to Punt under Ramesses III.
Here is what, for example, is said in the will: “I built large boats and ships in front of them, manned by a large crew and numerous accompanying [soldiers] … The tens of thousands [ships] themselves were sent to the great sea - Mu-Ked. They reach the country of Punt”(translated by IP Sologub).
According to Pierre Monte and other commentators, the Mo Ked Sea can only be … the Persian Gulf.
The route looks strange, very strange! To sail from Egypt to Somalia not directly, across the Red Sea, but first to ferry tens (or, according to the chronicler's hyperboles, “tens of thousands”) ships to Mesopotamia and from there, skirting the Arabian Peninsula, get to Somalia. It is like sailing from St. Petersburg to Gdansk, having previously ferried "tens of thousands" of ships to Arkhangelsk and from there, skirting the Scandinavian Peninsula, to get to Poland.
Pierre Monte himself believed that the Egyptians "were able to deliver tree trunks from Lebanon to the Euphrates" and build their ships there - which is little more reasonable. What prevented the omnipotent ruler, as before, from building ships in Egyptian shipyards from the Syrian forest, or buying them from the Phoenicians in Byblos, a city from which it was as convenient to get to Egypt as from Riga to Petersburg?
If we look at similar and other stories impartially, the country of Punt could be located in India rather than in Somalia.
Punt was famous for its wealth. The Egyptians could export from there precious stones and metals, gold and silver, amazing wood, wild animals - monkeys and leopards, antimony and aromatic resins, ebony and pure ivory. Most of these goods could be purchased not only in Africa.
The traditional view of Hatshepsut's swimming also raises questions. Was the long journey that the Egyptians embarked on under the command of their brave queen really aimed at their neighboring country, Somalia? With the same success one can imagine Fyodor Konyukhov, who decided to make "the most difficult voyage - from Moscow to Saratov"!
The inscriptions carved on the wall of the Deir el-Bahri temple say that the travelers "crossed the sea." Sailing along the African continent is not like crossing the sea. It would be another matter if they had passed the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden and ended up in the Arabian Sea, and from there sailed to the well-known inhabitants of Western Asia, but very distant 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.
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 Mulkhan-dani notes: "Archaeological finds prove that the local people were engaged in 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, many towns and villages lay along the banks of the Indus. Products were brought here from coastal regions, metals from remote regions 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, transferring 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.
Why not, returning to the finds made in Egyptian tombs, not suppose that merchants imported hashish or Indian hemp from a distant country, as well as a species of coca bush or other plant unknown to science that contained small doses of cocaine?
Author: A. Volkov, from the book "Mysteries of Drvenikh Times"
