Dr. Francesca Mercadante shoots an opium poppy
Archeogeologist Francesca Mercadante, of Partanna Mondello, photographs an opium poppy growing in someone's driveway garden in Sferracavallo, a fishing village quartiere on the north side of Palermo. Dr. Mercadante said that a vase found at a Greek temple in Sicily had vegetation depicted on it. One decorative illustration, for many years, had been misinterpreted as a pomegranate, when it really was a picture of the opium poppy bud. She said that Greek Sicilians of the Golden Age were big users of opium, especially the the temple oracles.