May
23
/ 2021
When it comes to plants with powerful medical applications Asia can be called the ‘traditional home.’ However, this is not the case when it comes to opium poppies, for new research has shown their domestication happened around 5000 years ago in the Swiss Alps. The Zürich Opera House was built in 1891 at the Sechseläutenplatz in the Swiss city of Zürich. Now, a new study has shown that 5500 years ago, where the Opera House's underground garage now stands, there existed flowing fields of opium poppies. Amidst these blazing colorful fields of poppies ancient farmers applied their emerging crafts of cultivation, but a long outstanding archaeological mystery is to what extent these agriculturalists affected, altered, or enhanced the domestication of
