This gift was offered to the gods 2,500 years ago. We now know what it is
Scientiests had long excluded the possibility of honey despite its cultural importance in the ancient Mediterranean.The bronze jars, six hydriae and two amphorae, were unearthed in 1954 within a sixth-century BCE Greek sanctuary, where they surrounded an empty iron bed deep below ground.
(Photo: Journal of the American Chemical Society)
A strong waxy aroma emanated from the vessels, which contained a paste-like residue thought to be remnants of a sacred libation. Since then, three separate analyses repeatedly failed to detect sugars, instead identifying fats and pollen, and rejecting honey as their original content.But a modern re-examination, led by chemist Luciana da Costa Carvalho and colleagues from the University of Oxford, has yielded entirely different results. Leveraging advanced mass spectrometry and gas chromatography, the team detected clear biomarkers: degraded sugars, hexose compounds, and major royal jelly proteins, all consistent with aged honey and honeycomb.The chemical fingerprint closely matched that of modern beeswax and honey, while the acidity and sugar breakdown were exactly what scientists would anticipate after millennia in metal jars.Long revered in Greek and Roman culture, honey's religious symbolism was deeply entwined with immortality and divinity, as myths said even Zeus was nourished on honey as an infant. The jars' original contents confirm written and artistic evidence of honey's role in medicine, ritual offerings, and burial rites throughout antiquity.Scientists now believe the Paestum shrine jars once held honeycomb, purposefully sealed and left as gifts to a now-unknown deity, offering a rare, direct link between ancient beliefs and modern archaeological science.This study showcases the power of modern biomolecular tools to re-examine and reinterpret historic finds. It also delivers the first definitive chemical evidence that ancient Greeks truly offered honey—'liquid gold'—to their gods.- EndsMust Watch
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