The Opium Trail from Egypt to Persia, or Putting Your Hope in Dope, Ancient Edition
About this episode
The episode explores the discovery of opium residues in an ancient Egyptian jar and its implications for understanding historical substance use.
The discovery of opium residues in an Egyptian alabaster jar with the Achaemenid king Xerxes’ name on it has us wondering. How stoned were they in the past? Was that why the jar ended up at Yale? Talk about a legacy admission!
More episodes of This Week in the Ancient Near East
- The Archaeology of Grumpy Old Men (and Women) in the Judean Iron Age, or, Grandpa, That’s a Cooking Pot Not a...
- The Case of the Elephant Bone in Third Century BCE Spain, or, Babar Says, You Wouldn’t Like Me When I’m Angry
- Please Don’t Eat the Halafian Daisies, or Plant Based Mathematics in Prehistory?
- For Quick Energy, Mamluks Choose Sugar! or, The Archaeology of 13-16th Century CE Sugar Mills in Israel
- The Case of the Very Different Iron Age Shipwrecks at Dor, or, Underwater Insurance Adjusters, Assemble!
- A Prehistoric Figurine of Problematic Possibilities, or Or, Mythogram for Mother Goose
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