Gold artifacts reveal drug rituals and 'Bastard Wars'

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

Artifacts discovered in the massive grave mounts of the Scythians have provided the first-ever evidence that the nomadic people conducted rituals that involved drug use, as first chronicled by the Greek historian Herodotus in writings dated back to 440 BCE.

In his Histories, Herodotus wrote that the Scythians made booths out of three sticks, into which they placed a booth filled with “red-hot stones” and “some hemp-seed.” As they threw the hemp seed onto the stones, it smoked and gave off a vapor that they used in place of bathing.

Now, a new expedition, led by Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation archaeologist Anton Gass, unearthed a rectangular chamber lined with broad, flat stones, according to National Geographic. The chamber included a variety of golden treasures that were more than 2,400 years old, as well as black residue in bucket-shaped vessels that tested positive for opium and cannabis.

The discovery confirms the practice reported on by Herodotus, and Gass believes that since the residue was found inside the vessels, they were used to brew a drink made from opium while the cannabis would have been burned nearby. He told the website that the fact that “both drugs were being used simultaneously” was “beyond doubt.”

Artifacts may also depict the so-called “Bastard Wars”

Gass told Nat Geo that the archaeological find was “a once-in-a-century discovery,” and that the artifacts were “among the finest objects we know from the region.” Those items were recovered from a burial mound or kurgan located in the Caucasus Mountains of southern Russia during the summer of 2013 – a find which had been kept secret to protect the artifacts from looters.

In addition to the bucket-shaped vessels, the treasures found at the site included three gold cups, a heavy gold finger ring, two neck rings, and a gold bracelet. A total of seven pounds worth of well-preserved gold artifacts were recovered by Gass, fellow archaeologist Andrei Belinski, and a team of colleagues, who started the excavation to clear area for a new power line.

In addition to proving that the Scythian people used drugs in their rituals, the gold vessels contained decorations that depict an older man slaying young warriors and what appears to be a depiction of the Scythian underworld.

The archaeologists told Nat Geo that the images detail the weapons and clothing of the culture in unprecedented detail, and they believe the combat seen may refer to the “Bastard Wars” that was described by Herodotus. The historian said that as the Scythians returned home after a nearly three-decade war with Persia, they found intruders in their tents.

These individuals were said to be the offspring of their wives and their slaves, and it is possible that the slaughter of those people was considered worthy of commemoration in golden artifacts. Belinski, however, told the website that he believed the scene was more metaphorical in nature, and that it may have represented the chaos that followed after a king’s demise.

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