Archaeologists uncover lost opium tradition in ancient Egypt

CHearing the opiate buzz may have been more common in ancient Egypt than we think, for kings and commoners alike.

A detailed chemical analysis of the remains found in an alabaster vessel dedicated to King Xerxes, who ruled an ancient empire in what is now Iran from 486 to 465 BC, identified traces of the narcotic substance. The findings provide the most conclusive evidence to date that opiates were a major part of daily life in ancient Egyptian society, say researchers working at Yale University’s Program in Ancient Pharmacology. They posted Results in Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archeology.

“When a rare, expertly crafted alabaster bearing the name of a king produces the same opium signature found in more modest tomb assemblages hundreds of years ago, we cannot dismiss the findings as accidental contamination or an experiment by the social elite,” Yale University researcher Christopher Renton wrote., one of the study’s authors, in an email.

The popularity of the drug in ancient Egypt has been hinted at in medical texts from Hippocrates to Galen and Dioscorides, as well as in religious symbolism, such as the poppy goddess of Crete, but this has been difficult to prove.

The purpose of using alabaster vessels such as those studied has been the subject of much speculation over the decades. Some have suggested that they contained cosmetics or perfumes, or were used to convey hidden private messages between the king and his officials. But the authors of the new study suggest that they may instead have had a direct cultural connection to the storage, preparation and consumption of opioids.

The scientists used highly sensitive tools to identify the parent compounds in the ancient samples, finding noscapine, hydrocotarynine, morphine, thebaine, and papaverine, all known diagnostic biomarkers for opium. Three of these same chemicals were clearly found in vases found in New Kingdom tombs at Sedment, Egypt – which contained the remains of high-ranking officials as well as more ordinary people – while the other two chemicals appear to have been present in a more degraded manner.

Read more: “How to make the bread that fed the pyramids“

Other clues that drugs had previously been contained came from a case of looting: In 1922, a researcher named Howard Carter found a huge amount of large, elaborate Egyptian alabaster vessels in the tomb of King Tut, and noted that the looters had extracted the organic contents with their hands “to the dregs,” leaving finger marks. Many of these looted alabasters still bear the same sticky, dark brown organic remains with a distinct smell that match the characteristics of the remains found in Xerxes’ bowl. Attempts at a chemical study in 1933 appear to have produced inconclusive results, but Yale scientists suggest that taboos around opium may have played a role.

The authors say it is unlikely that ointments or perfumes would have inspired the thieves to go that far. They suggest that the alabaster bowls could be cultural markers of opiates in ancient Egypt, just as hookahs today are associated with the consumption of hookah tobacco.

The findings suggest a more complex understanding of pain and mind-altering experiences in ancient Egypt than previously thought. “If the use of opium extends from royalty to commoners, we must reframe our perceptions of Egyptian medicine and the role of opium in its pharmacological development,” Renton wrote in his email. “These findings suggest that pain management, anesthesia, and perhaps controlled psychoactive experiences played meaningful roles in daily life and religious practices.”

If this is true, the civilization that gave us papyrus and the pyramids may also have pioneered a surprisingly nuanced relationship with drugs.

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• Christine French

  Posted on November 14, 2025

  Christine French is associate editor at Nautilus. She has worked in science journalism since 2013, reporting and writing articles and news stories for publications such as wired, back channel, edge, and New York Magazine. She earned a master’s degree in science journalism from Columbia University.