According to an IFL Science report, traces of opium have been detected in an ancient Egyptian alabaster vase held in Yale University's Peabody Museum. A team of researchers led by Andrew J. Koh of Yale University used gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to analyze the sticky, dark-brown residue with a distinct odor that was found in the jar. Noscapine, hydrocotarnine, morphine, thebaine, and papaverine -- all diagnostic biomarkers for opium -- were identified. The alabastron bears inscriptions written in Akkadian, Elamite, Persian, and Egyptian, and names “Great King” Xerxes I, who ruled Persia in the fifth century B.C. It had been previously...