{"id":14223,"date":"2026-04-06T20:04:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T02:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=14223"},"modified":"2026-04-06T20:05:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T02:05:08","slug":"light-it-up-like-a-roman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=14223","title":{"rendered":"Light It Up like a Roman"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Archaeologists at Pompeii are trying to figure out what incense its residents burned in their homes<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The study is part of a growing interest in so-called \u201csensory archaeology,\u201d which seeks to reconstruct not only objects and spaces from the past but also the sensory experiences associated with them. The aroma of burned incense, mixed with the smoke of local plants and possibly with wine poured as a libation, formed an essential part of communication with the divine in the domestic sphere.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

One residue detected is that of elemi, the gum of Canarium Luzonicum, a tree that grows in tropical forest in such locales as Madagascar and Philippine Islands. “It is still intensely fragrant and perfect as an ingredient in solid perfumes, salves, cremes, cosmetics, incense blends and moustache wax recipes,” says one online seller<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So there was quite a journey involved, either across the Indian Ocean or up the eastern coast of Africa through the Red Sea to one of several ports, then overland Alexandria (no Suez Canal then!) and back into a ship to Italy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Household<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

(Household shrine in the Casa del Larario del Sarno (I.14.7) with statuettes of Lares, a lamp and a censer. Credit: Pompeii, Archivio Fotografico inv. D964)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n“Grape biomarkers” are also mentioned, so apparently people were pouring out wine into containers on their altars, which seems perfectly normal.\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Archaeologists at Pompeii are trying to figure out what incense its residents burned in their homes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[20,328,298,56],"class_list":["post-14223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-archaeology","tag-incense","tag-ritual","tag-rome"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-3Hp","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7566,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7566","url_meta":{"origin":14223,"position":0},"title":"Three Items about the Dead","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 1, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Whose Bones Are Those? The Halloween news rush brought item about a new unit established at an Oxford college to perform cross-disciplinary investigations of religious relics In what is thought to be the first research body of its type in the world, the unit, based in Keble College, will bring\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/f\/f5\/Copal_Madagascar.jpg\/800px-Copal_Madagascar.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4312,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4312","url_meta":{"origin":14223,"position":1},"title":"Experiential Archaeology Fail","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 26, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It must be humiliating to copy a 3,500-year-old rowboat design, only to have yours sink.","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5921,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5921","url_meta":{"origin":14223,"position":2},"title":"A Medical Origin for Norse Monsters?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This is what happens when a parasitologist\/archaeologist muses on the origin of mythology. It gets interesting at about the 6:30-minute point. And this is a very famous turd in English archaeology.","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7456,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7456","url_meta":{"origin":14223,"position":3},"title":"New Grange Before It Was “Restored”","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 26, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Before excavation and restoration (think \"concrete wall\") began in the 1960s, the famous Irish Neolithic temple of New Grange\u00a0 (older than the Pyramids!) looked quite different. The Irish Archaeology site offers sketches and photos from the 18th century forward.","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/irisharchaeology.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Old-photo-newgrange.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":553,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=553","url_meta":{"origin":14223,"position":4},"title":"The stone circles of MassachusettsIn\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 2, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"The stone circles of MassachusettsIn the 1970s, the publication of Barry Fell's America BC introduced me to the an idea that was then completely out of fashion in mainstream archaeology: That other Europeans besides the Norsemen might have crossed the Atlantic before Columbus. Critics referred to this as \"cult archaeology\".That\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":951,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=951","url_meta":{"origin":14223,"position":5},"title":"Gallimaufry is not a Irish Word.","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 13, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00b6 Dude, it's like this secret Irish slang, you dig? So don't be a twerp--glom onto this.On the other hand, be careful of enthusiastic folk etymologists with a pocket dictionary and an agenda. It could just be a gimmick.\u00b6 Time and Mind is a new journal of postprocessual archaeology: \"The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14223"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14231,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14223\/revisions\/14231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}