Archaeologists have reexamined the 2,500-year-old remnants discovered in bronze containers at an underground shrine in Paestum, Italy, previously categorized as a mixture of wax, fat, and resin. Utilizing a multi-species approach, the researchers identified lipids, sugar degradation products, hexose sugars, and key royal jelly proteins.

Honey played a crucial role in ancient societies.

Historical texts and depictions indicate that honey was utilized as an early sweetener in medicinal recipes, rituals, and cosmetics.

Within ancient Greek and Roman traditions, bees and honey were of significant religious and symbolic value.

Honey is thought to confer wisdom, with myths stating that Zeus was given honey in his infancy.

Discovering honey in archaeological residues offers direct chemical evidence of the collection, exploitation, and processing of bee products, illuminating early agricultural and subsistence strategies in various regions globally.

In 1954, excavations at an ancient Greek site in Pestum, southern Italy, dating back to around 520 BC, unveiled an underground shrine dedicated to an unknown deity. This shrine housed a bronze bottle and two amphoras encircling an empty iron bed.

The container was found to hold a paste-like residue with a distinct waxy aroma.

Archaeologists noted that the residue was initially a liquid or semi-liquid. Traces were discovered on the exterior of a vessel that had originally been sealed with a cork disk.

The excavation reports underscored the shrine’s sacredness, with the empty bed’s inaccessibility suggesting the presence of the deity.

Additionally, archaeologists identified the original contents of the bronze bottle as honey, a revered symbol believed to have originated from honeycomb, though only traces of beeswax persisted as a prominent element.

Subsequent laboratory analyses of samples with varying residues ruled out honey from the composition.

In 2019, when the residues from Paestum reached the Ashmolean Museum for display during the final evening of the Pompeii exhibition, it presented a fresh opportunity to reassess the biomolecular composition, leveraging recent advances in mass spectrometry technology.

Researchers from Oxford University, including Luciana da Costa Carvalho and James McCulla, analyzed the residue samples, determining their molecular composition through several modern analytical methods.

The analysis revealed that the ancient residues bore nearly identical chemical signatures to modern beeswax and honey, with elevated acidity levels indicative of changes due to prolonged storage.

The chemical profile of the residue appears to be more complex than that of pyrolyzed beeswax, hinting at the existence of honey or other substances.

Residues in contact with the bronze jar showed a mixture of sugars that had reacted with copper.

Hexose sugars, frequently identified in honey, were present in higher concentrations in the ancient residues compared to modern beeswax.

Proteins linked to Royal Jelly, known to be secreted by western honeybees, were also identified in the residues.

These findings suggest that the ancient material may indeed be remnants of ancient honey.

However, researchers have not entirely ruled out the presence of other bee products.

“The ancient residues are not simply traces of what people consumed and offered to the gods; they represent intricate chemical ecosystems,” remarked Dr. Da Costa Carvalho.

“Investigating these substances will unveil how they have evolved over time, paving the way for future studies on ancient microbial activities and their potential applications.”

A paper detailing the study’s findings was published today in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

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Luciana da Costa Carvalho et al. Immortal symbol: evidence of honey in bronze jars from 530 to 510 BC. J. Am. Chemistry. Soc, published online on July 30th, 2025. doi:10.1021/jacs.5c04888