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Hemp History

Hemp History
Read about the rich history of hemp and hemp products:




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2700 BCE: Shennong pen Ts'ao first describes cannabis use




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c.1550 BCE: The Ebers Papyrus from Ancient Egypt describes medical cannabis

Ebers PapyrusThe Ebers Papyrus (named after the German eqyptologist who purchased it in Thebes in 1873), is among the oldest and most important of the medical papyri of ancient Egypt. It is thought to have been written around 1550 BCE, yet many scholars think that it is a compilation of older works, perhaps dating as far back as 3400 BCE.

The Ebers Papyrus suggests a number of remedies, including ground corn, celery ground in cow's milk, and hemp ground in honey, all of which were inserted into the vagina.1

Other ancient Egyptian papyri that mention medical cannabis are the Ramesseum III Papyrus (1700 BCE), the Berlin Papyrus (1300 BCE) and the Chester Beatty Medical Papyrus VI (1300 BCE).

Around 2,000 BCE, the ancient Egyptians used cannabis to treat sore eyes. The ancient Egyptians even used hemp in suppositories for relieving the pain of hemorrhoids. Professor of Egyptology at the University of Copenhagen, Lise Manniche notes the reference to "plant medical cannabis" in several Egyptian texts, one of which dates back to the eighteenth century BCE.2

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750 BCE: Assyrians use marijuana medicine to "bannish ghost of child birth"

Assyrian clay tablet mentions cannabis as medicineThe ancient Assyrian kingdom existed as a nation state from the mid 23rd Century BCE to 608  BCE and centered on the Upper Tigris river in northern Mesopotamia (present day northern Iraq).

During his 7th century BCE reign, the famous Ashurai king Ashurbanipal sent emissaries far afield in search of ancient texts and recovered many invaluable records, including the oldest stories of Adam and Eve and the Flood.
He copied many from cuneiform originals thousands of years older and sealed them within a vast underground library he specially constructed for the purpose. In the late 19th century archaeologists Sir Henry Layard and Hormuzd Rassam found this unique time capsule intact and recovered a huge cache of 50,000 tablets.

One such tablet has a fragment recording an ancient Assyrian herbal remedy which uses cannabis for “banishing the ghosts of childbirth.” One of a number of cuneiform medical texts and prescriptions recovered from King Ashurbanipal’s famous underground library in Nineveh during the late 19th century.

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600 - 400 BCE: Genesis 1-23 “I give you every seed-bearing plant..."

cannabis plant550 BCE: Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth..." - Genesis 1-23

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450 BCE: Scythians use cannabis in funeral rituals

Scythian princess buries with cannabis seedsIn antiquity, Scythian was a terms used by the Greeks to refer to certain groups of horse-riding nomadic pastoralists who resided on the Pontic-Caspian steppe. The name "Scythian", and the related word Saka (in Persian), was also used to refer to various peoples seen as similar to the Scythians, or who lived anywhere in a vast area covering present-day Central Asia, Russia, Romania and Ukraine—known until medieval times as Scythia.

Most of our information about them came from the Greeks. Herodotus describes how Scythians used cannabis, both to weave their clothing and to cleanse themselves in its smoke (Hist. 4.73-75); archaeology has confirmed the use of cannabis in funeral rituals.[1] Herodotus also describes a meeting involving such fumigation leading to collective hilarity of the participants. Cannabis was a characteristic of the Scythian belief system, they used cannabis to induce trance and divination by soothsayers.[2]

Archeologists found a container of cannabis in the burial chamber of a 2,500 year old mummified Scythian 'princess', as if she might require it in the afterlife.[2] Preserved in ice in an elaborate grave in the Altai Mountains, the ancient woman - famous for her remarkable tattoos - possibly took cannabis to dull the ravages of her illnesses, experts have discovered.

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400 BCE: Hopewell tradition Mound Builders smoke marijuana and produce hemp fabrics

Hopewell PipesThe group of cultures collectively called Mound Builders were prehistoric inhabitants of North America who constructed various styles of earthen mounds for burial, residential, religious and ceremonial purposes.


In 1891, in  his study of Prehistoric Textile Art of Eastern United States, Smithsonian Institute ethnologist W. H. Holmes showed that the ancient Mound-Builders utilized cannabis. Hundreds of clay pipes,  some containing cannabis residues and wrapped in hemp cloth, dating back to 400 B.C.E were found in the so-called Death Mask Mound of the Hopewell Mound Builders (Hopewell Tradition) who lived in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States, modern Ohio.[1]

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6th century BCE - The holy anointing oil from the Book of Exodus is (probably) made with cannabis

In the Book of Exodus (arguably written in the sixth century BCE), holy anointing oil is described as an integral part of the ordination of the priesthood and the High Priests of the ancient Israelites. The primary purpose of anointing with the holy anointing oil was to cause the anointed persons or objects to become qodesh, or "most holy" (Exodus 30:29).


    Sweet cinnamon (קינמון בשם kinnemon besem) 250 shekels (about 3 kg)
    Kaneh bosem (קְנֵה-בֹשֶׂם kaneh bosm) 250 shekels (about 3 kg)
    Cassia (קדה kiddah) 500 shekels (about 6 kg)
    Olive oil (שמן זית shemen zayit) one hin (about 5 quarts according to Adam Clarke; about 4 liters according to Shiurei Torah, 7 liters according to the Chazon Ish)

While sources agree about the identity of four of the five ingredients of anointing oil, the identity of the fifth, "kaneh bosem", has been a matter of debate. The Bible indicates that it was an aromatic cane or grass, which was imported from a distant land by way of the spice routes, and that a related plant grows naturally in Israel.[1][2] Several different plants have been named as possibly being the "kaneh bosem".

Polish anthropologist, Sula Benet in Early Diffusion and Folk Uses of Hemp (1967), identified kaneh bosem as cannabis.[3]

1. G. Johannes Botterweck; Helmer Ringgren; Heinz-Josef Fabry (January 2004). Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. pp. 68–. ISBN 978-0-8028-2337-3.
2. J. Cheryl Exum (1 January 2005). Song of Songs: A Commentary. Westminster John Knox Press. pp. 179–. ISBN 978-0-664-22190-4.
3. Sula Benet, Early Diffusion and Folk Uses of Hemp (1967)
4. Kaplan, Aryeh. The Living Torah New York 1981.p. 442

400 BCE - Scythians smoke marijuana from golden bongs



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