Overview
- The peer‑reviewed paper in Antiquity, published Monday, reports the first direct residue evidence that Romans at Pompeii burned wine with aromatic resins in domestic rituals.
- Scientists sampled ash from two censers, including one from a Boscoreale household shrine, and found grape markers such as tartaric, malic, succinic, and fumaric acids.
- Microscopy and chemical tests identified woods like oak and laurel used with an elemi‑like resin that grows in India or African rainforests rather than the usual Arabian frankincense.
- The team cautions that missing sediment control samples and decades of post‑excavation handling could have introduced contaminants, so the results are strongly suggestive rather than final.
- The findings align ancient texts describing the praefatio rite with physical traces and point researchers toward broader studies of Pompeii’s household religion and long‑distance supply chains.