Scientists at Yale University extracted microscopic residues from an inscribed calcite-alabaster vessel that once belonged to Xerxes I and detected unmistakable traces of opium, Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported. The discovery marked the first laboratory identification of contents from an inscribed Egyptian alabastron and reshapes modern views of Egyptian pharmacology and fifth-century BCE diplomacy.
The 22-centimeter-tall jar, housed for decades in the Babylonian Collection of the Yale Peabody Museum, preserved organic material because the stone’s porous structure absorbed and protected alkaloids over millennia. Investigators with the Yale Ancient Pharmacology Program introduced warm ethanol into the vessel for 60 seconds, then subjected the liquid to gas-chromatography–mass-spectrometry. The chromatogram revealed noscapine, hydrocotarnine, morphine, thebaine, and papaverine - the chemical fingerprint of opium from Papaver somniferum (opium poppy) - according to Enikos.
Exterior inscriptions in four languages - Akkadian, Elamite, Old Persian, and Egyptian - list the titles of Xerxes I. Fewer than ten intact inscribed alabastra of this kind are known, and documentary evidence shows they circulated as diplomatic gifts among rulers of Egypt and Mesopotamia.
"It is now abundantly clear that opiate use was a fixture of ancient daily life," the researchers wrote, challenging earlier theories that royal vessels held perfumes or cosmetics. Their methods revisited the findings of chemist Alfred Lucas, who in 1930 observed that only a minority of Tutankhamun’s alabaster jars contained perfume. Lucas’s conclusions inspired the Yale team to examine residue in other royal containers; they argued that many jars from Tutankhamun’s tomb displayed a sticky, dark-brown substance with the odor and chemical profile of dried opium latex.
Howard Carter’s original excavation notes for tomb KV62 support the reinterpretation. Carter recorded that ancient robbers twice entered the burial chamber, first removing precious metals and later scraping contents from select alabaster vessels, leaving fingerprints and leather-bag impressions inside. The Yale team suggested the thieves sought narcotics, not oils, because opium had high value on the ancient black market.
The researchers proposed that the tall alabaster shape itself may have served as a visual shorthand for opium, much as hookahs are linked to shisha tobacco today. They cited Cypriot pyxides shaped like poppy heads and limestone vessels from the New Kingdom village of Sedment whose degraded residues matched the same alkaloid suite.
Beyond clarifying the function of the Xerxes jar, the study explains why Egyptian artisans valued alabaster: its translucence pleased the eye and its porous matrix protected organic cargo. The team found that a single gentle rinse released almost all alkaloids, a detail that will help museums minimize risk to other artifacts.
If narcotics moved along elite diplomatic networks, the authors argued, they likely circulated among commoners as well, pointing to a complex and systematic program of opium use in the wider Nile world. The team suggested that examining ancient pharmacology could illuminate humanity’s enduring relationship with opioids today.
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