A N ' O L D ' R E M E D Y
Cannabis seeds were used for food in China by 6000 B.C.E. and for textiles in China by 4000 B.C.E.
Hemp was used for rope and sails as well as fine linens in ancient Egypt. Hemp rope was found in the eighteenth-dynasty tomb of Akhenaten (Amenophis IV) at El Amarna, including a three ply hemp cord in the hole of a stone and a large mat bound with hemp cords.
In the third century C.E. the Roman emperor Aurelian imposed a tax on Egyptian cannabis.
Cannabis was first documented in Kemet (ancient Egyt) around 2000 B.C.E. to treat sore eyes and cataracts. According to Diodorus Siculus (a Sicilian Greek historian who lived from 90 to 21 B.C.E.) Egyptian women used cannabis as a medication to relieve sorrow and bad humour.
Cannabis is mentioned as a medication in the following ancient Egyptian medical texts: Ramesseum III Papyrus (1700 B.C.E.), Eber’s Papyrus (1600 B.C.E.), the Berlin Papyrus (1300 B.C.E.), and the Chester Beatty VI Papyrus (1300 B.C.E.). The Eber’s Papyrus is the oldest known complete medical textbook in existence. Most scholars believe that it is copy of a much earlier text, probably from around 3100 B.C.E.
Section of Eber’s Papyrus, Formula No. 821
Location Plate #96, Lines 7-8
Text in Demotic script
Formula No. 821. Translation: “Cannabis is pounded [ground] in honey and administered into her ****. This is a contraction.” The 1907 Merck Index (page 132) lists emulsions of cannabis seeds to treat the effects of gonorrhea. The 1909 King’s American Dispensatory lists hemp seed infusion for use in after-pains and in the bearing down sensation accompanying prolapsus uteri. The 1927 U.S. Dispensatory lists hemp seed oil for inflammations of the mucous membrane.
Section of Eber’s Papyrus, Formula No. 618
Location Plate #78, Lines 10-11
text in Demotic script
Formula No. 618 translation: “Remedy for toe-nail (or fingernail). Ingredients honey, ochre cannabis, and [other ingredients which have not yet been translated]”
Also in the Eber’s Papyrus, a mixture of cannabis and carob was used as an enema or combined with other ingredients for use as a poultice.
The Ramses III Papyrus provides a prescription for cannabis use in the treatment of glaucoma: “A treatment for the eyes: celery, cannabis is ground and left in the dew overnight. Both eyes of the patient are to be washed with it in the morning.”
Mummy of Ramses II - the most virile and long-lived Pharaoh
Cannabis pollen was found on the mummy of Ramses II (nineteenth dynasty). Initially scholars debated as to whether the cannabis pollen was ancient or modern contamination. Additional research showed cannabis pollen in all known royal mummies. No known ancient Egyptian mummies were wrapped in hemp cloth.
The intoxicating properties of cannabis were virtually unknown among Europeans until the eighteenth century (1700s) when travellers to Egypt discovered the drug. European witches knew of cannabis from antiquity, when cannabis was one of the most commonly used medications among Celts and Norse.
The Smoke Eaters at the temple at Thebes used cannabis incense for mortality rituals.
The ancient Egyptian goddess Seshat (above in her role as the Goddess who measures) is depicted with a hemp leaf in her head dress. Pharaoh Tuthmosis III (1479 to 1425 B.C.E.) called her Sefkhet-Abwy (She of the seven points). Hemp was used to make measuring cords. Seshat was the goddess of libraries, knowledge, and geomancy, among other things. Spell 10 of the Coffin text states “Seshat opens the door of heaven for you”.
