In the period around 2800 years ago, small Phoenician ceramic vials were widespread in the Mediterranean. Now analyzes of 51 such bottles from the Phoenician settlement of Mozia in Sicily reveal, where these vessels were made and what was kept in them. According to this, these vessels came from the Levant – the core country of the Phoenicians – and served the storage and the transport of special fragrance oils. For the widely traveled Phoenicians, these “fragrances of home” could have represented an important emotional and cultural connection.
Scents play an important role in our world of experience: they awaken emotions and memories and also familiar people from the smell. It is therefore no coincidence that fragrances and fragrance essences were also used in early cultures in the context of rituals, religious ceremonies or at burials. Often certain fragrances were considered “divine”, they were presented as an offering or used to prepare dead for the hereafter. “Over time, human groups have developed various olfactory cultures that have become an important part of their identity,” explain Adriano Orsingher from the University of Complutense in Madrid and the University of Tübingen and his colleagues.
Puzzle about Phoenician ceramic vials
This was also true for the Phoenicians who dominated the Mediterranean during the Iron Age. This culture, based in Levante, spread far beyond the eastern Mediterranean thanks to its experienced seafarers and far -reaching trade relationships. Phoenician settlements were created even on the Iberian Peninsula. “The Phoenicians are therefore considered the key factor for the expansion of the west of Middle Eastern goods, materials and practices,” write Orsingher and his colleagues. An essential part of Phoenician culture was also the production and use of aromatic substances, both for local use and for export.
Archaeologists have long suspected that the Phoenicians kept their fragrance oils in special vessels and exported. These are simple, small ceramic bottles of around 15 to 18 centimeters height with a narrow neck and wide, arched edge. Especially in the 8th to 6th centuries BC They found themselves in large numbers in graves, houses and sacred sites. “Their widespread distribution in the Mediterranean and beyond suggests that these vessels fulfilled a variety of functions,” says Orsingher. Because of the small size of the vials and their locations, it is obvious that these vessels once contained fragrance essences. So far, however, there have been no clear evidence, the same applies to the question of where these “Phoenician oil bottles” were produced in such quantities.
Made in the Levant for export
Now comprehensive analyzes of 51 ceramic oil vessels from the Phoenician settlement Mozia provide deeper insights on an island off the coast of Sicily. Orsingher and his colleagues have chemically analyzed the ceramic material of the vessels using the mass spectrometry, and they also examined the structure of the ceramic using thin cuts. In addition, the researchers searched for possible residues inside the vials and also subjected them to a chemical analysis. “By examining the content of these vessels and their use, we gain unique insights into the way in which scents live, landscapes and identities in the ancient Mediterranean,” says Orsingher.
The studies showed that the ceramic material of the Phoenician oil vials can be assigned to three similar, but slightly different recipes from its structure and chemistry. Two of these recipes, which make up most of the vials, show great matches with ceramics from southern Phoenicia. “Roughly comparable ceramics were also used along the central coastal regions of the Levante, between Beirut to the Bay of Kamel,” reports Orsingher and his colleagues. This confirms that these oil vessels produced in the Levant and then exported to Sicily and beyond.
Fragrant resin and vegetable oils
When searching for organic residues, the team found what they were looking for in eight of the 51 vials. In these, they identified traces of plant lipids as well as pine resin and mastix resin – significant indications of fragrance oils. “Our research confirms that these ceramic vessels were used to transport aromatic oils,” says co-author Silvia Amicone from the University of Tübingen. When spreading over the Mediterranean area, the Phoenicians apparently also took the scents of their homeland in such vessels – possibly because they could not produce or maintain these fragrance essences in their new settlement areas.
“These oils were therefore more than just simple merchandise. They acted as a cultural connection age, as an expression of the identity that the Phoenic migrants accompanied across the Mediterranean,” explains Amicone. “They served as instruments of memory and strengthened joint practices and odor experiences among the scattered communities.”
Source: Eberhard Karl’s University of Tübingen; Specialist articles: Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, DOI: 10.1007/S10816-025-09719-3
