Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>]

On 23/05/2006 00:46, tladatsi AT charter.net wrote:
> Peter & Co.
>
> While cultivation of hemp is well documented in China for thousands of years, 
> it was found naturally and used ubiquiously in Asia and Europe since the 
> stone age.   The manufacture of hemp rope was widely practiced.  Here is a 
> link to an interesting paper on the topic.
>
> http://mojo.calyx.net/~olsen/HEMP/IHA/jiha5208.html
>
>   
Thank you for this link. But, apart from a site in Poland where either 
hop or hemp pollen was found (and I guess the ancient Poles were more 
likely to have been beer drinkers than pot smokers!), there is very 
little clear evidence for hemp or cannabis in Europe or the Middle East 
before c. 500 BCE. (Note that the dates given are "before present".) 
There is an unpublished report of hemp in the Po plain from c. 1500 BCE. 
And there is some evidence from north of the Black Sea from around 800 
BCE, which would at least tie up with the suggested Scythian etymology. 
But there is no evidence, apart from something extremely speculative, 
for "Europe since the stone age", not at all, let alone "ubiquitously".

> We do know that Herodotus knew of hemp  in 450 BCE.  He takes its existance for granted and does not state or imply it is a new crop.  
>
>   
Which would suggest that it was around before 500 BCE, not necessarily 
much earlier. There is nothing here to contradict my hypothesis that it 
was brought to Greece, and to the rest of Europe, by Phoenician traders, 
who might have obtained it from India, where according to this paper it 
was probably known c. 1000 BCE. There is evidence that other plants 
named in the Hebrew Bible, e.g. cinnamon, were brought from South Asia 
during the same general period.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/