Bulgarian archaeologists have discovered dozens of lead caps from ampoules, which contained the famous medieval "antidote to all poisonings."
According to Archeology in Bulgaria, lead caps have been found all over Bulgaria.
We are talking about a panacea - the so-called teriak, an imaginary universal antidote, which supposedly cured all poisoning without exception. It is believed that it was invented by King Mithridates VI (120-63 BC) - the ruler of the Pontine kingdom. The famous physician Galen was also interested in Teriak.
This "medicine" was most widespread in the Middle Ages. In particular, some of the caps found in Bulgaria date back to the XII-XIV centuries. So, one of the artifacts dates back to 1323, when the Bulgarian-Byzantine wars were going on.
But many artifacts turned out to be … fakes. For example, analysis showed that two lead caps found in the city of Sadovo in the southeast of the country were made as early as the 19th century. However, the merchants passed them off as the original 14th century terriac brought from Venice and Trieste.
One of the last such finds was a lid discovered in the necropolis of the Kremikovsky Monastery in Sofia. Judging by the inscription on it, the ampoule with theriac was made in Venice in the Middle Ages.
It was probably also a fake. After all, the analysis dated the cover to the end of the 15th - the beginning of the 16th century. By the way, at that time Bulgaria was part of the Ottoman Empire.