Ancient Egyptians may have used opium many. According to recent surveys, archaeologists it is now said that the drug may even have been an almost daily recreational habit. Opium may have even been widely used by socioeconomic classes as early as 3,000 years ago. The evidence is detailed in a study recently published in the journal Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archeologyand offers a glimpse into the daily lives of ordinary Egyptians and members of the royal family.
“Our results, combined with previous research, suggest that opium use was more than occasional or sporadic in ancient Egyptian cultures and surrounding lands. [It] was to some extent an integral part of everyday life,” says Yale Peabody Museum researcher Andrew Koch. explained in university announcement.
Ko and his colleagues believe that historical corrections will likely be needed after studying the approximately 2,500-year-old alabaster vase. The relic is one of fewer than 10 such intact specimens found in excavations around the world. Artifacts made from calcite have been discovered at various archaeological sites, including the famous tomb Pharaoh Tutankhamun. In this particular case, the vessel has inscriptions engraved in four languages: Egyptian, Akkadian, Elamite and Persian. Xerxes Iruler of the Achaemenid Empire from 486 to 465 BC. As king, Xerxes I oversaw Egypt as well as large areas of Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Eastern Arabia, Central Asia and the Levant.
“Scientists tend to study ancient vessels and admire their aesthetic qualities, but our program focuses on how they were used and the organic substances they contained,” Ko said, adding that such finds help reveal information about the daily lives of ancient people.
Ko first became interested in this particular vase after noticing an unknown dark brown aromatic residue inside the container. Subsequent chemical analysis confirmed the presence of noscapine, thebaine, papaverine, hydrocotarnine and morphine, all of which are clear biomarkers of opium. In their study, the authors noted that their find is only the latest of many such artifacts. Such vessels with opium were available not only to representatives of the royal family. Archaeologists previously discovered remains of opium in jars belonging to the tomb of a merchant family dating back to the New Kingdom (16th to 11th centuries BC).
“We have now discovered chemical traces of opiates from Egyptian alabaster vessels that were attached to elite societies in Mesopotamia and introduced into the more ordinary cultural circumstances of ancient Egypt,” Koch said. “Perhaps these vessels were easily recognizable cultural markers of opium use in ancient times, just as hookahs are associated with the use of hookah tobacco today.”
As additional possible evidence, the study authors cited an analysis by chemist Alfred Lucas almost 100 years ago. In 1922, Lucas was a member of Howard Carter's group that discovered Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Lucas conducted a brief chemical study of similar alabaster vessels in 1933 and described in detail their sticky, dark brown organic matter. Although he was unable to accurately identify the aromatic remains, Lucas concluded that most were not perfumes or similar aromatic products.
“We think it is possible, if not likely, that the alabaster jars found in Tutankhamun's tomb contained opium as part of an ancient tradition of opiate use that we are only now beginning to understand,” Koch said.
In the future, Ko hopes to conduct the same analysis of historical artifacts currently housed in the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, Egypt.
