The destruction of Pompeii preserved ash residues on the household altars of its inhabitants. An international research team has scientifically investigated for the first time what was burned in Roman incense burners from Pompeii – and discovered something surprising: In addition to native plants, the people used imported aromatic substances from Africa or Asia. This indicates that Pompeii was part of a global trade network.
In 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried Roman Pompeii and many other towns and villas in the vicinity. The catastrophe for the people of the time is a boon for today’s archaeology thanks to the unique preservation conditions. One of the things preserved by the volcanic ash was the ash in the incense burners with which Romans offered sacrifices to their gods. The ash from two such ritual vessels from Pompeii and a nearby villa has now been analyzed using a range of state-of-the-art laboratory techniques.
Exotic tree resins from Africa or Asia
“We can now pinpoint which fragrances were actually burned in Pompeian domestic cult practices,” says Johannes Eber from the University of Zurich, who led the study. “Alongside regional plants, we found traces of imported resins – an indicator of Pompeii’s far-reaching trade connections.” Particularly notable: In one vessel, the researchers identified residues from an exotic tree resin that probably comes from tropical regions of Africa or Asia.
“Molecular analyses also point to a grape product in one of the incense burners,” says Prof. Dr. Maxime Rageot of the Bonn Center for ArchaeoSciences at the University of Bonn, who carried out the biomolecular investigations for the study. “This would be consistent with the use of wine in rituals as portrayed in Roman imagery and described in texts. At the same time, it demonstrates the importance of supplementing archaeological studies with scientific analyses,” observes Rageot. “The combination of various cutting-edge chemical and microscopic investigation techniques makes the everyday religious practices of the people in Pompeii suddenly tangible,” explains LMU archaeologist Philipp W. Stockhammer, whose ERC research group initiated the study.
Far-reaching trade network almost 2,000 years ago
Pompeii Archeological Park, which recently established a new permanent exhibition about the eruption and its victims, in which it presents a large number of organic finds such as plant residues, foods, and wooden objects, underscores the importance of these kinds of studies: “Without Pompeii, our knowledge of the Roman world would be poorer,” says director of the park, Gabriel Zuchtriegel. “Yet it holds a wealth of data and insights that only contemporary archaeological practices can properly access. Thanks to interdisciplinary collaboration with other sciences, we can still discover many things about life in the ancient city.”
The investigation shows that Pompeii was not just a Roman city near Mount Vesuvius – but part of a global trade network whose traces can even be found in the aromas of their household altars.
