[imagesource: Eliahu Valdaman/Israel Antiquities Authority]

Humanity’s desperation for an effective hangover cure has generated some rather fascinating results.

In ancient Greece, a 1 900-year-old papyrus suggested that wearing a necklace of laurel leaves was a perfectly good “drunken headache cure”.

In ancient Mesopotamia, a physician told patients to drink a potion made of oleander, beans, oil, and wine if they’d taken “strong wine and his head is affected.”

Meanwhile, in another distant past, a gold and amethyst ring was discovered to be the cure of the day around the 7th century.

Nowadays, pickle juice is the go-to in Poland, putting lemons under your armpits is popular in Puerto Rico, and cork voodoo is all the rage in Haiti.

Most of us just settle for raw eggs and Bloody Marys though, if not a quick shot of Panado.

My ideal cure is just to drown myself in water and sleep, but I am not going to lie, pretending to be a Byzantine-era empress sounds pretty lavish:

Image: Dafna Gazit / Israel Antiquities Authority

CNN has more:

The ring was found just 150 meters (492 feet) away from the remains of a warehouse containing amphorae, a type of jar used to store wine.

The excavation site [in Yavne, south of Tel Aviv in central Israel] has been dated to approximately the 7th century — around the end of the Byzantine era and the start of the Early Islamic period — though officials said the ring could be even older.

Archaeologists Amir Golani said the 5,11-gram gem was likely worn to prevent a mean hangover, among other possible “virtues” and religious associations.

A similar kind of amethyst was mentioned in the Bible and is also suspected of having been the chosen jewel for “affluent” folks, worn by men and women to indicate status, per Smithsonian Mag:

“Finding an ancient ring with a semi-precious stone intact is rare,” Golani [says].

“Its size and ostentatiousness indicates it belonged to someone who wanted to flaunt their wealth.”

The co-director of the excavation, Elie Haddad has a similar theory:

…the item may have “belonged to the owner of the magnificent (winery) warehouse, to a foreman” or to an “unlucky visitor, who dropped and lost their precious ring.”

“Did the person who wore the ring want to avoid intoxication due to drinking a lot of wine?” she is also quoted as saying. “We probably will never know.”

This is the site where the ring was excavated:

Image: Yaniv Berman / Israel Antiquities Authority

Amethysts, with their “blood-like hues”, have been known to store energy and healing powers for quite some time:

The word amethyst comes from the Greek word amethystos, meaning “not intoxicating,” and is related to medhu, meaning mead.

Ancient Greeks sometimes incorporated amethysts into wine glasses or wore the gems while drinking in hopes of avoiding intoxication.

The connection between amethysts and sobriety dates back at least to the time of the Greek poet Asclepiades of Samos, who was born around 320 B.C.E. and mentioned the phenomenon in a poem, according to the Gemmological Association of Great Britain.

Yeah, I’ll take an amethyst ring over a Panado any day.

[sources:cnn&smithsonianmag]