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Over 50 years ago an underground shrine was discovered in Paestum, Italy, an-hour-and-a-half from the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, made famous due to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
Within the 6th century BCE shrine, several bronze jars were discovered, containing an orange-brown sticky substance assumed to be honey – an important commodity in the ancient world.
Some of the exhibits on display at the Ashmolean Museum (Image: Luciana Carvalho) Yet, over the course of the following three decades teams analysed the residue in the jars but failed to confirm its identity, instead concluding it was animal or vegetable fat contaminated with pollen.
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Now, a new study from Oxford University has harnessed modern analytical techniques to confirm the residue had a near identical fingerprint to modern beeswax and similar to modern honey, the first biomolecular evidence to show this.
The ancient site in Paestum, Italy (Image: Oxford University) The co-leader of the project, Professor James McCullagh, said that because of their approach they were “able to reveal a comprehensive picture of the residue’s molecular composition”.
Lead author Dr Luciana Carvalho using a thermal separation probe (Image: Thomas Player) This was made possible due to a close partnership between the University of Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum and the Archaeological Park of Pompeii.
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Dr Kelly Domoney, heritage science manager at the museum, explained that the Italian park “generously” made several loans for a 2019 exhibition.
She said: “We were permitted a unique opportunity to re-analyse those contents using modern instrumentation at the university”.
The study ‘A Symbol of Immortality: Evidence of Honey in Bronze Jars Found in a Paestum Shrine Dating to 530-510 BCE’ has been published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
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