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3w ago

2,500-Year-Old Honey Confirmed in Paestum Shrine Jars

A July 30 study in the Journal of the American Chemical Society uses cutting-edge GC-MS with proteomic profiling to reveal honey signatures in residue long dismissed as wax or fat

2,500-year-old honey and bronze jar on display at the Ashmolean Museum contained a mysterious substance (shown in the foreground)
Image
Paestum honey: (A) underground shrine in Paestum, Italy; (B) one of the hydrias on display alongside a Perspex box containing the residue at the Ashmolean Museum in 2019; (C) graphic representation of the arrangement of the bronze jars inside the shrine; (D) sample from the core of the residue. Image credit: da Costa Carvalho et al., doi: 10.1021/jacs.5c04888.
Mysterious 2,500-Year-Old 'Gift to The Gods' Finally Identified

Overview

  • The eight bronze vessels were placed around an underground shrine in Paestum, Italy, around 520 BCE and remained sealed until their 1954 excavation and 2019 transfer to the Ashmolean Museum.
  • Earlier analyses between the 1950s and 1980s interpreted the waxy paste-like residue as animal or plant fat contaminated with pollen and insect debris.
  • Oxford researchers led by Luciana da Costa Carvalho and James McCullagh applied gas chromatography–mass spectrometry and advanced proteomic methods to reassess the ancient deposits.
  • Tests detected intact hexose sugars, elevated acids consistent with long-term degradation, and major royal jelly proteins as definitive molecular markers of honey.
  • The study highlights how modern biomolecular techniques can uncover complex organic residues in archaeological artifacts and set a new standard for future investigations.