Syria: Archeological Treasure Revealed

[Ponce]

Syria: Archeological Treasure Revealed
Front page / Science / Planet Earth
03.05.2010 Source: Pravda.Ru



Eighteen ancient tombs have been unearthed so far this year in the Tal Al-Ashari archeological site in the Region of Dara, south-west of Tafas, dating from the Neolithic, through the Classical to the Ottoman periods.






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Thirteen of the cemeteries date back to the middle Bronze Era and the remaining five, to the Roman Era. Hussein Mashhadawi, Director of the Dara Archeology Department, declared that a total of 800 items have been found, these being pottery, tools made of bronze and various other accessories. The Bronze Era cemeteries date back to 2,000 BCE, when the Canaanites lived in the region.

At other sites in Mehajjeh, Jassem and Sheikh Maskin, numerous treasures have been found, including a Byzantine Era mosaic painting, ancient foundations, religious houses, grape crushing and olive grinding mills. At Sheikh Saad, a four-roomed house and a Roman Temple were discovered, along with a haul of coins and at Tal-Al-Ashari, metal objects, pestles and mortars, tobacco pipes, earthenware and glass vessels from the ottoman period.

The discoveries have been made over the last two months.

NOTE: by me..........when did they come to America to get the tabacco for the pipes?

[nunaem]

At Sheikh Saad, a four-roomed house and a Roman Temple were discovered, along with a haul of coins and at Tal-Al-Ashari, metal objects, pestles and mortars, tobacco pipes, earthenware and glass vessels from the ottoman period.

The discoveries have been made over the last two months.

NOTE: by me..........when did they come to America to get the tabacco for the pipes?


The Ottoman Empire lasted from 1300's until the 1920's, so it must've been from the later Ottoman period.

[sirgonzo420]

NOTE: by me..........when did they come to America to get the tabacco for the pipes?



They weren't tobacco pipes...


... they were obviously crack pipes.



"metal objects, pestles and mortars, tobacco pipes, earthenware and glass vessels"

Uh huh... sounds like an ancient crackhouse to me. Hell, they may have cooked some meth up there too.

[cigarlover]

There was tobacco growing in Cuba long before the US. Pipes could have been for Cannabis or hashish use as well. The cannabis plant was used for thousands of years as medicine and also for recreation. Of course this all ended when the drug companies decided they could make better medicine than nature.

[sirgonzo420]

There was tobacco growing in Cuba long before the US. Pipes could have been for Cannabis or hashish use as well. The cannabis plant was used for thousands of years as medicine and also for recreation. Of course this all ended when the drug companies decided they could make better medicine than nature.


Well, we know the drug companies are wrong. ;)

And I think ole Willie Shakespeare was a toker... and maybe even had "a little blow when he could afford it", just like Obama!


Pipes Show Cocaine Smoked
in Shakespeare's England
by
Ed Stoddard
(March 3rd 2001)

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Was William Shakespeare partial to a good deal more than a pinch of tobacco while composing his sonnets?

While there is no proof the bard delved into narcotics, clay pipe fragments excavated from his Stratford-upon-Avon home and of the 17th century period show conclusively that cocaine and myristic acid -- a hallucinogenic derived from plants, including nutmeg -- were smoked in Shakespeare's England.

The findings, published in the latest issue of the South African Journal of Science, also show hints of residues of cannabis or marijuana, but this has not been proven. Nicotine, unsurprisingly, was one of the compounds firmly identified.

``The cocaine was found in two of the 24 pipe fragments examined, which is really quite remarkable,'' Dr. Francis Thackeray, a paleontologist at the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria who co-write the article, told Reuters.

``The Spanish had access to it at that time in the Americas, but the fact that it was smoked in England at that time is a first. It is quite a find,'' said Thackeray, who is a distant relative of the famous 19th century English author.

``Cocaine was recorded in Europe about 200 years ago, but to our knowledge never this early,'' he said.

``...apparently no chemical analyzes have been undertaken to determine what substances other than tobacco may have been smoked in England during the 17th century,'' the article said.

It said cannabis sativa, the plant from which marijuana is derived, ``was certainly accessible in Elizabethan England for paper, rope, garments and sails.''

The fragments, which were lent to Thackeray by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, were examined with the help of Inspector Tommie van der Merwe of the South African Police Service's Forensic Science Laboratory.


DRUG-INDUCED POETRY AND PROSE?
The findings are certain to spark tantalizing speculation that England's favorite writer may have been inspired to write his enduring classics while under the influence of substances associated with bohemian authors of the 20th century.

``There is some suggestive evidence in Shakespeare's own writing,'' said Thackeray.

``In sonnet 76 he refers to a 'noted weed' which may have been a reference to cannabis,'' he said.

``In the same sonnet, he refers to 'compounds strange' and the word compounds is a known reference to drugs,'' he said.

``But I think Shakespeare, who may have experimented with these substances, is saying he would rather turn away from them. I would not read it as an endorsement of drug use,'' he said.

from http://www.cocaine.org/shakespeare/index.html