Archaeological frankincense

Frankincense, or olibanum, obtained from trees of the genus Boswellia1, is the best known of the aromatic gum resins used throughout the world as incense in religious ceremonies. The earliest archaeological evidence for the burning of incense comes from the Old Kingdom in Ancient Egypt, where spoon-shaped incense burners with long handles have been found. However, no chemical evidence exists of the exact resin used. A wide range of ingredients would have been used by the ancient incense-maker and such materials would have been important traded products2. We have chemically characterized frankincense from the archaeological record at the site of the major frontier settlement of Qasr Ibrîm, Egyptian Nubia.