14 DAY TRIAL // While investigating the ancient Phoenician settlement of Lixus, near Larache, in Morocco, Spanish researchers at the University of Valencia (UV) discovered in 2005 an amazing artifact. The vessel was a 2,000-year-old amphora, which was apparently used for ritual purposes. It was sealed using a special mixture of substances, and the analysis of their chemical composition appears now to suggest that pine resin was the main element. The artifact also contained a number of metallic fragments, which scientists believe may be remnants of the materials used in iron-working at the time.
“We have studied the substance that was used to seal the container using three different techniques, and we compared it with pine resin from today,” UV Senior Professor Jose Vicente Gimeno tells SINC. He is also one of the authors of a new study detailing the investigation, which appears in a recent issue of the scientific journal Analytical Letters. Experts at the university's Department of Analytical Chemistry reveal that the material used to seal the amphora was most likely made to have a rope-like appearance, and add that the partial fingerprints of whoever molded the mixture are still visible on the object.
The chemistry group determined that a large concentration of primaric, isoprimaric and dehydroabietic acids existed in the sealing material. Finding these therpenic organic compounds was what allowed it to qualify the substance as a resin coming from a tree of the Pinus genus. Unlike present-day pine resin, which is malleable and somewhat orange in color, the remains found on the amphora are hard and blackish with yellow spots. Therefore, the age of the resin could not be accurately identified.
“The jar was found in an area that must have been the amphora store of a house from the period between 50 BCE and 10 CE,” the coordinator of the Lixus excavations, expert Carmen Aranegu, adds. She is also a UV senior professor. Archaeologists say that amphorae of this type were primarily used to store wine or salted products, but add that, once these functions were completed, they could also be used as watertight containers. This specific artifact is thought to have been used to store metallic parts, and protect them from oxidation, before being used in local iron production.