Post by UKarchaeology on Aug 13, 2015 14:19:50 GMT
(2015)LONDON (CBSDC) – The man who wrote Hamlet and MacBeth may have been enjoying some Midsummer Night’s Dreams.
South African researchers examined some 17th-Century clay tobacco pipe fragments found in William Shakespeare’s home town of Stratford-upon-Avon, reports Time Magazine.
They examined 24 fragments, including some had been excavated from the site of the Bard’s personal garden.
Using advanced gas chromatography methods, they detected cannabis on eight of the fragments, including four that were confirmed to dome from the garden.
“Literary analyses and chemical science can be mutually beneficial, bringing the arts and the sciences together in an effort to better understand Shakespeare and his contemporaries,” said lead researcher Francis Thackeray.
Other Shakespeare scholars have dismissed the study, saying there is no evidence William Shakespeare used drugs. They say hemp was commonly grown in England in Shakespeare’s day.
Food for thought if you’re planning to see the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of Midsummer Night’s Dream.
The study is published in the South African Journal of Science.
(source/pic: washington.cbslocal.com/2015/08/10/scientist-shakespeare-marijuana/ )
South African researchers examined some 17th-Century clay tobacco pipe fragments found in William Shakespeare’s home town of Stratford-upon-Avon, reports Time Magazine.
They examined 24 fragments, including some had been excavated from the site of the Bard’s personal garden.
Using advanced gas chromatography methods, they detected cannabis on eight of the fragments, including four that were confirmed to dome from the garden.
“Literary analyses and chemical science can be mutually beneficial, bringing the arts and the sciences together in an effort to better understand Shakespeare and his contemporaries,” said lead researcher Francis Thackeray.
Other Shakespeare scholars have dismissed the study, saying there is no evidence William Shakespeare used drugs. They say hemp was commonly grown in England in Shakespeare’s day.
Food for thought if you’re planning to see the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of Midsummer Night’s Dream.
The study is published in the South African Journal of Science.
(source/pic: washington.cbslocal.com/2015/08/10/scientist-shakespeare-marijuana/ )