Ashes from Pompeii: incense burners, residue analyses and domestic cult practices

Vergrößern

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.

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