| | Opium - China-related Topics OM-OP - China-Related Topics |
 | | The image of the poppy capsule was an attribute of deities, long before opium was extracted from its milky latex. |
 | | At the Metropolitan Museum's Assyrian relief gallery, a winged deity in a bas-relief from the palace of Ashurnasirpal II at Nimrud, dedicated in 870s BC879 BC, bears a bouquet of poppy capsules (prudishly described by the museum as pomegranates). |
 | | Opium has been a major item of trade for centuries, and has long been used as a painkiller and sedative. |
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