An analysis of incense burners discovered in the doomed city identified traces of resin imported from sub-Saharan Africa or Asia, testifying to Pompeii’s extensive trade networks

A new study is the first to “pinpoint which fragrances were actually burned in Pompeian domestic cult practices,” archaeologist Johannes Eber says. Archaeological Park of Pompeii / Johannes Eber

Some 2,000 years ago, an ancient Roman left a burnt offering at a household shrine in Boscoreale , a town just north of Pompeii, at the foot of Mount Vesuvius. The ritual produced an ashy residue that was still present in the 1980s, when archaeologists found it in a censer , or incense burner, at a country villa. Now, researchers have published the first analysis of the censer’s contents, identifying the offering as resin that likely originated in sub-Saharan Africa or an Asian rainforest.

The findings, published in the journal Antiquity , offer additional archaeological evidence of rituals described in ancient literature and art .…