2026/03/30 by Johannes Eber, Shira Gur-Arieh, Robert C. Power +2 · 2 voices
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History #Burseraceae #Cult #Cultural Heritage Materials Analysis #Historical and Literary Studies #Incense #Period (music)
paper · pdf · doi:10.15184/aqy.2026.10320
openalex created_date 2026/03/30 · openalex publication_date 2026/03/30 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/13
Incense burners are frequently excavated at Roman period sites, attesting to acts of combustion within domestic ritual practices, but what was burnt is still uncertain. Here, the authors use microscopy and spectrometry to analyse burnt residues contained within two censers from domestic contexts in Pompeii and a nearby villa . Their results indicate that woody plants were burnt in both censers, either as fuel or offerings, alongside stone fruit or laurel plants and possibly wine or grapes, while traces of Burseraceae resins, originating from Asia or sub-Saharan Africa, provide the first archaeological evidence of incense offerings in the Pompeian domestic cult.