ROYAL HIGH –
Dec. 18, 2025 – This redefines “high” society in ancient Egypt. Yale University researchers have found trace amounts of opium jars in an ancient Egyptian vessel, proving that opium use was widespread in the land of the pharaoh — including during the time of King Tutankhamun. The druggy study was published in the Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology. “Our findings combined with prior research indicate that opium use was more than accidental or sporadic in ancient Egyptian cultures and surrounding lands and was, to some degree, a fixture of daily life,” said the lead author, Andrew J. Koh, the principal investigator a the Yale Ancient Pharmacology Program.
The 22-centimeter alabaster vase was inscribed in four languages — Akkadian, Elamite, Persian, and Egyptian — and dedicated to Xerxes I, whose Achaemenid Empire encompassed Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Levant, Anatolia, and parts of Arabia and Central Asia.
