Ancient Egyptians may have used opium a lot. “Our findings, combined with prior research, indicate that opium use was more than accidental or sporadic in ancient Egyptian cultures and surrounding lands. [It] was, to some degree, a fixture of daily life,” Yale Peabody Museum researcher Andrew Koh explained in a university announcement. “Scholars tend to study and admire ancient vessels for their aesthetic qualities, but our program focuses on how they were used and the organic substances they contained,” said Koh, adding that such findings help reveal information about ancient daily life. Lucas performed a brief chemical study of similar alabaster vessels in 1933, and detailed their sticky, dark brown, organics.