guy Posted February 26, 2022 Report Share Posted February 26, 2022 (edited) Olive oil was an important part of life in Ancient Rome. It played an important part in the diet, as well as being used for washing, medicine, and lighting. This solidified oil is still in the bottle and was preserved at Pompeii after the volcanic eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. It has been displayed with this carbonized bread at the Naples National Archaeological Museum (see picture above). A recent study confirmed the contents of this bottle: “In this work, for the first time to our knowledge, the authenticity and identity of an olive oil sample, hereinafter referred to as Mann-S1, which has been stored seemingly in its original glass bottle since 79 A.D., has been assessed through radiocarbon dating and detection of analytical biomarkers. The availability of a conspicuous amount of such a well-preserved specimen of organic material is rare and gave us the chance to map the molecular evolution that oil has undergone for almost 2000 years.” Item no. 313337 stored at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples (MANN). a Glass bottle containing Mann-S1; b detail of the organic content with inclined surface indicating an original liquid status; c sample used for chemical analyses (Mann- S1); d lipid extracts from Mann-S1. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41538-020-00077-w Edited February 26, 2022 by guy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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