Early opium usage may have been a "gift to the gods," according to earliest traces discovered in Israel

Trace levels of the drug were found in eight out of the 22 ceramic jars.

The earliest evidence of opium use in antiquity was found in a Late Bronze Age burial site in central Israel that dates to roughly the 14th century B.C. At the site, which is situated in Tel Yehud, an area historically known as Canaan, residue of the drug, which is produced from the seed capsules of the poppy plant, was discovered inside more than half …