The 'Cupping Glass' of Masada

At the Olympics held in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, spectators noticed that the famous swimmer Michael Phelps, who won the gold medal, had round marks on his back. The marks were left by the cupping glasses applied before he swam. Cupping is a form of medicine used for thousands of years. Michael Phelps, with 8 medals, broke the record of Mark Spitz, who had 7.

In 2009 a cupping glass used more than 2,000 years ago was found at Masada. Bell-shaped cups were much used in ancient Israel as medical treatment. The first cups we know of are found in the Ebers papyrus, an Egyptian medical document of 3,500 years ago, which said that to cure pains hot cups were placed over the part that hurt. The papyrus took the name of the German professor Georg Ebers, the Egyptologist who in 1874 gave the document to the library of the University of Leipzig, where he taught.

I remember that my grandmother (may she be in Paradise) placed a burning wick on my back and, over the wick, the glass cup. The wick burned until no oxygen was left inside the cup, and this lack of oxygen made the blood rise to the level of the skin, which turned red. At that point the pain calmed and was cured. This form of treatment was also written down by the famous Hippocrates, on whom all doctors have sworn their oath to be good doctors and cure illness for more than 2,000 years.

The bronze cupping glass of Masada was found at the level of the destruction of the fortress in the year 73, when the Romans defeated the Jews. It was Yigal Yadin who found the cup, together with some coins of that time. There were two ways of using the cup: dry and wet. In the dry method the cup was heated over a flame and, with a little oil, placed on the back of the sick person. When the cup cooled, the lack of air created a pressure that drew the blood up. In the wet method a small incision was made and the hot cup was placed over it; as it cooled, the blood rose to the skin in the same way. The process left marks on the skin for some time.

It is interesting to know that even today, in many countries, cupping is used as complementary medicine.