By: The Scribe on April, 2007
In the 7th century BC, Greek colonists arrived on the Libyan coast and established the city of Cyrene. The Greek scientist Theophrastus (ca. 370-288 BC) wrote a detailed account of the expedition, explaining how not long after the colonists’ arrival, they discovered a plant called ‘silphium’. The city would soon come to depend on this plant for its high trade value, and its existence was crucial for the Cyrenian economy.
Generally considered to be an extinct “giant fennel”, the plant was valued both for its use in seasoning foods, as well as for its unique ability to affect cures for a number of ailments. Cooking aside, sap from the silphium plant was used to treat everything from coughs, fever, indigestion, to sore throat, aches, warts, and more. What it was most valued for, however, was its use as an herbal contraceptive.
It is thought that the plant may have been active in the prevention or termination of pregnancy. The Roman physician Soranus, also known as the most famous gynecologist of the ancient world, wrote in a medical treatise that women should drink about the size of a chick pea’s worth of silphium juice, mixed with water, once a month. He claimed that this “not only prevents conception, but also destroys anything existing.”
While silphium was eventually harvested to extinction, there were also several other plants in antiquity purported to have prophylactic abilities: Queen Anne’s lace blocked a woman’s internal cycle, while even in modern times, pennyroyal contains a substance that can terminate both human and animal pregnancies.
Although much of the information from antiquity concerning contraceptive herbs and medicinal remedies for pregnancies has been lost, one thing remains clear: women in and around ancient Greece and Rome definitely had a great deal of control over their reproductive decisions.
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By: The Scribe on April, 2007
The first inhabitants of Malta probably arrived around 5200 BC from Sicily, and originally fished, farmed, and hunted for their survival. As their society progressed, buildings and culture became more and more complex, eventually arriving at the time now known as the ‘Temple Period’ on Malta. Built around 3600 BC, the prehistoric Maltese temples are the oldest free-standing stone structures in the world – older than the Pyramids or Stonehenge.
Although it is not known why the Maltese people built so many large temples, most of the temples share the same form – five semi-circular rooms connected at the centre – and so it appears that they were related in some way. One suggestion has been that these rooms might have represented the head, arms, and legs of a deity, since the most common finds in these temples were “fat lady” statues. Images of large women are often celebrated in ancient cultures as symbols of fertility.
Finds from the temples indicate that the buildings were used for sacrificing animals, mainly goat, sheep, and ram. Several altars were found in temple rooms, though the rooms themselves were only large enough to hold several individuals.
Unfortunately, the people of ancient Malta did not leave behind any writing or inscriptions that may have provided more insight into the culture and its temples. Instead, around 2500 BC, the Temple period came to a sudden and inexplicable end – the entire culture seems to have vanished.
New people such as the Phoenicians would later colonize the island, and ownership disputes would be ongoing until 1964, when Malta was finally granted status as an independent nation.
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Tomorrow: Ancient “Morning-After” pill?
By: The Scribe on April, 2007
Around 1850 BC, a violent earthquake shook the southern site of Pyrgos on Cyprus, blanketing the area in earth and debris and perfectly preserving the remains of the rooms underneath. Archaeologists working at the site discovered what they believe to be a 3,995 square mile factory devoted to perfume production.
The size of this factory suggests that perfume was produced on an industrial scale; at least 60 mixing bowls, perfume bottles, funnels, and other implements were preserved in perfect condition. Residues gathered from the vessels – over 4000 years old – were analyzed, and it is known that the perfumes were scented with lavender, bay, rosemary, pine, or coriander extracts, and kept in small alabaster bottles.
Greek mythological tradition places the island of Cyprus as the birthplace of the love goddess Aphrodite, who often wore perfumes to enhance her desirability.
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Tomorrow: “The Bellringer” of Russia
