Editing Opium (section)

=== Ancient use (pre-500 CE) ===
{{Quote box
 |quote  = A little of it, taken as much as a grain of ervum is a pain-easer, and a sleep-causer, and a digester...but being drank too much it hurts, making men lethargical, and it kills.
 |author = [[Dioscorides]]
 |source = Introduction to ''The Herbal of Dioscorides the Greek''
 |width=15%
}}
[[File:Malwapoppy.jpg|thumb|right|Poppy crop from the [[Malwa]] in India (probably ''Papaver somniferum'' var. ''album''<ref name="Schiff">{{cite news|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3833/is_200207/ai_n9107282/print |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071021021327/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3833/is_200207/ai_n9107282/print |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 21, 2007 |title=Opium and its alkaloids |author=Paul L. Schiff Jr. |year=2002 |access-date=May 8, 2007 |work=American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education }}</ref>)]]

Opium has been actively collected since approximately 3400{{spaces}}BCE.<ref name=Santella>{{cite book | title=Opium |author1=Santella, Thomas M. |author2=Triggle, D. J. | publisher=Facts On File, Incorporated | year=2009 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9BLfZSZHzgcC | page=8| isbn=978-1-4381-0213-9 }}</ref>

At least 17 finds of ''Papaver somniferum'' from [[Neolithic]] settlements have been reported throughout [[Switzerland]], [[Germany]], and [[Spain]], including the placement of large numbers of poppy seed capsules at a burial site (the ''Cueva de los Murciélagos'', or "Bat Cave", in Spain), which has been carbon-14 dated to 4200{{spaces}}BCE. Numerous finds of ''P. somniferum'' or ''P. setigerum'' from [[Bronze Age]] and [[Iron Age]] settlements have also been reported.<ref name=Carr>{{cite web|author=Suzanne Carr |title=MS thesis |url=http://www.oubliette.org.uk/Four.html |year=1995 |access-date=May 16, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091108155018/http://www.oubliette.org.uk/Four.html |archive-date=November 8, 2009 }} ''(citing Andrew Sherratt)''</ref> The first known cultivation of opium poppies was in [[Mesopotamia]], approximately 3400{{spaces}}BCE, by [[Sumer]]ians, who called the plant ''hul gil'', the "joy plant".<ref name="Brownstein">{{cite journal|author=M J Brownstein|title=A brief history of opiates, opioid peptides, and opioid receptors|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America|date=June 15, 1993|volume=90|issue=12|pages=5391–5393 |pmc=46725 |doi=10.1073/pnas.90.12.5391|pmid=8390660|bibcode=1993PNAS...90.5391B|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="Frontline">{{cite web|author=PBS Frontline|title=The Opium Kings|website=[[PBS]]|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/heroin/etc/history.html|year=1997|access-date=May 16, 2007}}</ref> Tablets found at [[Nippur]], a Sumerian spiritual center south of [[Baghdad]], described the collection of poppy juice in the morning and its use in production of opium.<ref name="Schiff" /> Cultivation continued in the Middle East by the [[ancient Assyrians|Assyrians]], who also collected poppy juice in the morning after scoring the pods with an iron scoop; they called the juice ''aratpa-pal'', possibly the root of ''Papaver''.<ref name=anon>{{cite book |title=The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Miscellany |author=<!--No author credited in original work-->|date=1817 |publisher=Wm. H. Allen & Company |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VhgSo7NMGbYC |access-date=May 31, 2022 |language=en |chapter=Description of the Culture of the White Poppy and Preparation of Opium, as Practised in the Province of Bahar|volume=3}}</ref> Opium production continued under the [[Babylonians]] and [[Ancient Egypt|Egyptians]].

Opium was used with [[poison hemlock]] to put people quickly and painlessly to death. It was also used in medicine. ''[[Spongia somnifera]]'', sponges soaked in opium, were used during surgery.<ref name="Brownstein" /> The Egyptians cultivated ''opium thebaicum'' in famous poppy fields around 1300{{spaces}}BCE. Opium was traded from Egypt by the [[Phoenicia]]ns and [[Minoan civilization|Minoans]] to destinations around the [[Mediterranean Sea]], including Greece, [[Carthage]], and Europe. By 1100{{spaces}}BCE, opium was cultivated on [[Cyprus]], where surgical-quality knives were used to score the poppy pods, and opium was cultivated, traded, and smoked.<ref name="Kritikos">{{cite journal|title=The early history of the poppy and opium|author1=P. G. Kritikos |author2=S. P. Papadaki |journal=Journal of the Archaeological Society of Athens|date=January 1, 1967}}</ref> Opium was also mentioned after the [[Achaemenid Empire|Persian]] conquest of Assyria and Babylonian lands in the {{nowrap|6th century BC}}.<ref name="Schiff" />

From the earliest finds, opium has appeared to have ritual significance, and anthropologists have speculated ancient priests may have used the drug as a proof of healing power.<ref name="Brownstein" /> In Egypt, the use of opium was generally restricted to priests, magicians, and warriors, its invention is credited to Thoth, and it was said to have been given by Isis to Ra as treatment for a headache.<ref name="Schiff" /> A figure of the Minoan "goddess of the narcotics", wearing a crown of three opium poppies, {{circa|1300}}{{spaces}}BCE, was recovered from the Sanctuary of Gazi, Crete, together with a simple smoking apparatus.<ref name="Kritikos" /><ref>{{cite journal|language=es|author=E. Guerra Doce|title=Evidencias del consumo de drogas en Europa durante la Prehistoria|journal=Trastornos Adictivos|volume=8|issue=1|pages=53–61|date=January 1, 2006|url=http://db.doyma.es/cgi-bin/wdbcgi.exe/doyma/mrevista.fulltext?pident=13087278|access-date=May 10, 2007|doi=10.1016/S1575-0973(06)75106-6|s2cid=145084811 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080515210321/http://db.doyma.es/cgi-bin/wdbcgi.exe/doyma/mrevista.fulltext?pident=13087278|archive-date=May 15, 2008|url-status=dead}} ''(includes image)''</ref>

The Greek gods [[Hypnos]] (Sleep), [[Nyx]] (Night), and [[Thanatos]] (Death) were depicted wreathed in poppies or holding them. Poppies also frequently adorned statues of [[Apollo]], [[Asclepius]], [[Pluto (mythology)|Pluto]], [[Demeter]], [[Aphrodite]], [[Kybele]] and [[Isis]], symbolizing nocturnal oblivion.<ref name="Schiff" />