Researchers found a jar containing opium in the tomb of an ancient Egyptian king

An ancient marble urn in the Yale University Museum has revealed a hidden truth: Opium consumption was part of the culture of society in ancient Egypt. One of the researchers of this university said in a statement: “Our findings, along with previous research, show that the use of opium in the cultures of ancient Egypt and its surrounding lands was an integral part of daily life, rather than accidental.” Researchers believe that the use of this drug was probably so common that Padshat Tat himself drank it.

They think the jars found in the king’s tomb may have contained opium as part of an ancient tradition. The eight-inch, 1.2-liter jar that started this research had been hidden in the university for a long time. A team of researchers published an article about their findings after examining the fragrant and brown sediment inside this jar. Chemical analysis of the sediment shows the presence of noscapine, hydrocotarnine, morphine, thebaine and papaverine in it, all of which are part of opium. Also, the four ancient languages ​​mentioned on the urn are related to the era of King Xerxes.

In addition, there is brown material found in marble vessels and small jars dating to the New Kingdom of the 11th to 16th centuries BC. “We have now found a chemical trace of opiates, which suggests that Egyptian marble jars were used in elite Mesopotamian societies as well as normal cultural conditions in ancient Egypt,” said the Yale University researcher. It also raises the question of how many other vessels in Egyptian tombs contain traces of opium. He said they may have been symbolic vessels for smoking opium in the past, just as hookahs are used for smoking tobacco today.

When Shah Tat’s tomb was discovered in 1922, chemical analysis was not as precise as it is today. When Alfred Lucas examined Egyptian pottery in 1933, he noticed that many of them contained a sticky, dark brown, aromatic substance, but he could not identify what this substance was. The robbers had entered the tomb before Howard Carter discovered it and were trying to remove the contents of the containers. Inside most of the marble vessels there were fingerprints, indicating that the looters tried to remove the contents of the buried objects.

Shah Tat’s marble vessels have not been examined since then and are now kept in the Great Egyptian Museum. Of course, the interest in poppy was not limited to Egyptian culture. The use of opium had spread to the spiritual realms of culture from ancient Mesopotamia to Egypt. During the lifetime of King Tat, the people of Crete worshiped the poppy goddess. Examining the contents of the jars in this king’s tomb provides researchers with more information about the role of opium in the ancient societies of that time.