
When Howard Carter's team opened Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922, the inventory included alabaster jars of dark residue that legend turned into still-edible honey, sealed around 1323 BCE and never actually identified by any chemist who tested it — a Yale team now suspects opium
The famous story of edible honey from Tutankhamun's tomb is mostly folklore — but the chemistry that makes honey nearly immortal is real, and a 2025 Yale study suggests the actual residues in Tut's alabaster jars may have been something far stranger: opium.







