"Lemnian Earth, a medicine in the shape of a stamped clay tablet (sphragis) from Lemnos, northeastern Greece, was much valued in antiquity and in the post-medieval period as an antidote to poison and a treatment for other ailments. Although it was among the first archaeological materials to be subjected to chemical analysis (in 1807), there is still no clear understanding as to what made Lemnian Earth an effective medicine. We argue that Lemnian Earth, the artefact, was not the same as Lemnian Earth, the raw material. We suggest a composition for the artefact by scrutinizing the documentary evidence for its properties and by considering the geochemical processes that led to the formation of the raw material and the ritual relating to its extraction. The study of the latter highlights the need for archaeological materials scientists to recognize ritual as a possible manifestation of physical and chemical processes carried out within the framework of past beliefs and practices."
~ A.J. Hall & E. Photos-Jones, 'Accessing Past Beliefs and Practices: The Case of Lemnian Earth'
“I thought well to inquire whether there was no tradition of goat‟s blood being mixed with the Earth. All who heard this question of mine laughed, and they were not mere chance individuals, but people well informed about the whole history of the locality as well as in other matters. In fact I got a book from one of them, written by a former native, in which all the uses of the Lemnian Earth were set forth....The man who gave me the book, and who was counted among the leading citizens of Hephaistias, used the medicine himself for many purposes: thus for old standing wounds that were slow to heal, for viper bites and animal bites in general; he also used the seal for poisons, both in prevention and cure. He said that he had also tried a juniper preparation to which some earth is added”
~ Galen, On Simple Drugs IX.II.247-8; trans. Brock 1929, 194).
Dr. Ammon Hillman asserts that this Lemnian Earth was not only a pharmacological panacea, but that -- within the ritual and technological capacity, or 'Pharmakognosis' of the theurgist priestesses -- it was also a 'capacitating drug', meaning it could transform what would otherwise be venoms and poisons, into highly beneficial chemical (or possibly even mycellial?) processes in the body. In other words, the negative effects are ameliorated, and perhaps even synthesized for good effect with this Leminian Earth 'seal' .
Artwork: 'Cauldron of the Sóteira'
Rendered by: Dall-E
Prompts by Gnostech