Bronze Age
A relief from the mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut (d. 1458 BCE) at Deir El-Bahari, Egypt, showing the trading expedition to Punt.
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The first long-distance movements of plants and animals date to the third millennium BCE, with East Asian crops moving west along the proto-Silk Road, while wheat and barley travelled east, appearing in East Asia by 2500–2000 BCE.1 The spice trade itself may have started in the last two millennia BCE (or possibly even earlier), e.g.
black peppercorns (from a plant native to India) were identified in the mummy of pharaoh Rameses II (c. 1200 BCE). Cumin (and poppy) may have arrived with the Philistines in Israel (twelfth to seventh centuries BCE), though not necessarily by trade. Evidence of the spice trade or movement within the Bronze Age is summarised in Table 2 below:Table 2 | Evidence for Bronze Age Spice Trade
| Evidence | Spice | Age | Comment | Reference |
| Seeds found in Late Neolithic lakeside settlements in Switzerland | Dill | 3400–3050 BCE | Dill non-native, assumed transported from Med area | C. Brombacher, 19972 |
| Decorated incense burners present in royal graves in A-group Nubia | Undefined incense | Late fourth millennium BCE | Presumably imported from Arabia or north-east Africa | N. Boivin & D. Fuller, 20093 |
| Introduction of sesame to Mesopotamia from India | Sesame | 2400 BCE? | Evidence supports westward spread from India pre-second millennium BCE | D. Bedigian & J. Harlan, 1986;4 D. Fuller, 2003,5 V. Zech-Matterne et al., 20156 |
| Traces of cumin found in residues of vessels in Minoan sites | Cumin | Second millennium BCE | E. Tsafou & J. J. Garcia-Granero, 20217 | |
| Inscribed granite blocks at Mit Rahina, Egypt refer to 217 sacks of cinnamon or camphor being carried by ship from the Levant | Cinnamon or Camphor | Nineteenth century BCE | Depends on translation of ti-Sps as cinnamon | E. S. Marcus, 20078 |
| Cultivated in Babylon | Turmeric, Cardamom | Eighteenth century BCE | Derived from South and Southeast Asia | F. Rosengarten, 19699 |
| Cloves found at Terqa, Syria | Cloves | 1720 BCE | Cloves derived from Southeast Asia | G. Buccellati & M. Kelly Buccellati, 1978;10 Monica L. Smith, 201911 |
| Described in Ebers Papyrus, Egypt | Cardamom | 1550 BCE | Derived from South and Southeast Asia | F. Rosengarten, 1969 (op. cit.) |
| Obtained on Queen Hatshepsut’s expedition to Punt (via either the Nile or Red Sea) | Myrrh, frankincense, (cinnamon) | Sixteenth to fifteenth centuries BCE | Punt location debated – could be part of modern Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea or Uganda. ‘Cinnamon’ translation is debatable | A. B. Edwards, 1891;12 F. Rosengarten, 1969 (op. cit.); F. Wicker, 1998;13 J Turner, 200414 |
| Nutmeg remains at Deir El-Bahari in Egypt from 18th dynasty, possibly associated with Queen Hatshepsut’s expedition to Punt | Nutmeg | Sixteenth to fourteenth centuries BCE | Nutmeg derived from Indonesia. Equivocal and not substantiated | E. Naville & H. R. Hall, 191315 |
| References to cinnamon in Ancient Egypt, East Africa may be attributed to an active ‘Cinnamon Route’ in second millennium BCE between Indonesia and Madagascar/Rhapta | Cinnamon (nutmeg, cloves, etc. may have also followed this route) | Mid-second millennium BCE | Cinnamon is native to Southeast Asia and India. Use of double outrigger canoes from Indonesia, early connection to Madagascar supported by various lines of evidence | J. Innes Miller, 196916 |
| Curcuma (Turmeric) protein residues found in dental calculus of individuals in the Levant | Turmeric | Mid-second millennium BCE | Derived from South Asia | Ashley Scott et al., 202017 |
| 149 Canaanite amphorae filled with Pistacia resin from Ulu Burun shipwreck off south coast of Turkey | Pistacia resin (probably for incense), coriander, nigella, sumac, safflower | Fourteenth century BCE | Possible trade route between Syrio-Palestine and Cyprus. Pistacia resin poss origin from north Jordan River valley | C. Glenister, 2008;18 C. Pulak, 200819 |
| Peppercorns found in nostrils of Rameses II | Black pepper | 1213 BCE | Assumed traded from India to Egypt | A. Plu, 198520 |
| Citrus medica seeds found in Hala Sultan Tekke in Cyprus | Citron | Late thirteenth century BCE | Citron originated in Southeast Asia | H. Hjelmqvist 197921 |
| Cinnamaldehyde residues recovered from Phoenician flasks in Israel | Cinnamon | Eleventh to ninth centuries BCE | Suggest trade established between Levant and Asia | D. Namdar et al., 201322 |
| Various occurrences of fenugreek seeds in Bronze Age sites in Bulgaria, India, Pakistan | Fenugreek | Various Bronze Age | Native to East Med. Unclear if traded, grows wild in India and Pakistan | T. Popova, 201623 |
One of the earliest and most important spices used extensively by modern humans is sesame, though it was particularly valued for its oil.
Botanical evidence suggests that sesame (S. indicum) was first domesticated in the Indian subcontinent, with the earliest reliably dated specimens dating from 2500 to 2000 BCE at Harappa in the Pakistan Indus Valley and Miri Qalat in south-west Pakistan. The origin has been traced to the domestication of S. orientale L. var. malabaricum.24 Numerous other Indian occurrences of sesame have younger dates, e.g. Sanghol in the Indian Punjab (1900– 1400 BCE) and Sringaverapura and others in the Ganges basin (1200–800 BCE).25 Sesame appears to have reached Mesopotamia by 2300 BCE during the era of the Harappan civilisation, with evidence provided by charred seeds from Abu Salabikh, Iraq. Sesame may have reached Egypt at Naqada by the First Intermediate Period (2181–2055 BCE), though pollen was recorded even earlier than this. It has also been found in Tutankhamun’s tomb (c. 1325 BCE) and in a storage jar at Deir el Medineh (1200–1000 BCE). Other Middle Eastern Bronze Age occurrences date from 1450 to 1250 BCE. This appears to demonstrate a westward human-driven dispersal of sesame from an origin in the western/north-western part of the Indian subcontinent; it took advantage of existing overland trade between Harappa and Mesopotamia, as well as trade on the Arabian Sea between Mohenjo Daro and Ur.26 Mesopotamia became a centre of distribution of sesame and sesame oil into the Mediterranean.More exotic spices were also moving west. Cinnamon is a South Asian spice that has cropped up a few times in archaeological records in Egypt, though inscriptions hinge on the translation of the word ti-Sps as ‘cinnamon’. A large shipment of 271 sacks of cinnamon (or possibly the related camphor) was recorded on inscribed granite blocks at the Mit Rahina site in Egypt dating back to the nineteenth century BCE. Cinnamon was also inferred from reliefs at the Deir El-Bahari temple near Luxor, Egypt, describing the voyage to the Land of Punt in the sixteenth century BCE. Actual nutmeg remains recovered from this complex could be related to the same journey.27 Definitive evidence of cinnamon traces was reported from Late Bronze Age Phoenician flasks (eleventh to ninth centuries BCE) at a site in Israel.28
Turmeric has also been found – a study of dental calculus from ancient human remains in Meggido (in modern Israel) found evidence for the consumption of turmeric, soybean and banana – certainly proving people in the eastern Mediterranean had access to foods from distant locations, including South Asia, in the mid-second millennium BCE.29