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3w ago

Opium Biomarkers Found in 2,500-Year-Old Xerxes Vase, Pointing to Widespread Ancient Use

Researchers used nondestructive residue analysis on a rare calcite vessel, prompting calls to test Tutankhamun’s alabaster jars.

The vase is inscribed in four languages to Xerxes I, who ruled the Achaemenid Empire from 486 to 465 BCE.
Ancient Egyptian wall relief with hieroglyphs and a pharaoh figure. Credit: Robert Harding Video / Shutterstock
Image not associated with study: Ancient Egypt, Ramses II Temple.
© Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies (2025) 13 (3): 317–333 / Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY-NC-ND

Overview

  • Using heated-ethanol “swishing” and GC–MS, the team identified noscapine, hydrocotarnine, morphine, thebaine, and papaverine preserved in the vase.
  • The 22-centimeter alabaster vessel carries Akkadian, Elamite, Old Persian, and Egyptian inscriptions dedicating it to Xerxes I, with a Demotic note of about 1,200 milliliters capacity.
  • The results echo prior detections of opiates in New Kingdom jars from an ordinary Sedment tomb, indicating use across centuries and social strata.
  • Authors describe the finding as the clearest direct chemical evidence of broad opium use in ancient Egyptian society and argue it likely figured in daily life as well as ritual contexts.
  • The study urges fresh, nondestructive testing of Tutankhamun-era vessels, noting Alfred Lucas’s 1933 report of dark, sticky residues not identified as perfumes and the jars’ current housing at the Grand Egyptian Museum.