NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT—According to an IFL Science report, traces of opium have been detected in an ancient Egyptian alabaster vase held in Yale University’s Peabody Museum. A team of researchers led by Andrew J. Koh of Yale University used gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to analyze the sticky, dark-brown residue with a distinct odor that was found in the jar. Noscapine, hydrocotarnine, morphine, thebaine, and papaverine—all diagnostic biomarkers for opium—were identified. The alabastron bears inscriptions written in Akkadian, Elamite, Persian, and Egyptian, and names “Great King” Xerxes I, who ruled Persia in the fifth century B.C. It had been previously suggested that such vases held perfumes or cosmetics for royal elites, but Koh and his colleagues now think they were made to hold opium. Read the original scholarly article about this research in the Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies. To read about the surprising mixture that researchers recently found in another ancient vessel, go to "Artifact: Egyptian Bes Cup."
