Traces of opiates preserved inside a 3,500-year-old jug have been found by scientists.
The late Bronze Age base-ring juglet and its contents are intact and is held in the British Museum collection.
There had been a "long-standing" theory the jugs had been containers for opium and a new technique was used detect a plant compound related to it.
It is the first chemical evidence of the opium poppy within such a jug, University of York scientist said.
Dr Rachel Smith, from the university, said: "It's not opium itself we've found, the jug is 3,500 years old so whatever was in there is degraded."
