• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

University of Mississippi eGrove Honors College (Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors Theses Honors College) 2013 And Myrrh, Cassia, and Frankincense rode on the Wind A Detailed Look at the Aromatic and Spice Trade of the Classical Mediterranean Forrest Colby Roberts Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis Recommended Citation Roberts, Forrest Colby, "And Myrrh, Cassia, and Frankincense rode on the Wind A Detailed Look at the Aromatic and Spice Trade of the Classical Mediterranean" (2013). Honors Theses. 2102. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/2102 This Undergraduate Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Honors College (Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College) at eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of eGrove. For more information, please contact [email protected]. And Myrrh, Cassia, and Frankincense Rode on the Wind." A Detailed Look at the Aromatic and Spice Trade of the Classical Mediterranean By: Forrest Colby Roberts A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Mississippi in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College. Oxford May 2013 Approved by L Advisor: Dr. Aileen Ajootian Reader: Dr. Brada Cook Reader: Di. 'ouglass Sulliyan-Gonzalez ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis is the culmination of four years of hard work as an undergraduate. I would like to thank my parents, Bruce and Hope Roberts, for teaching me the importance of learning and asking questions and for allowing me to pursue a field of study which has challenged me academically. I would like to also thank the Honors College and Classics Department, respectively for giving me every opportunity to advance my knowledge in the field of Classics and my readers. Dean Sullivan-Gonzalez and Dr. Brad Cook, for taking the time to critique my work. Finally I would like to thank Dr. Aileen Ajootian for introducing me to this wonderful discipline, and for her invaluable advice and tireless efforts. ABSTRACT This Thesis studies the trade in spices and aromatics in the Mediterranean during the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. It will examine in particular frankincense, myrrh, cinnamon, cassia, and silphium. Through a the use of ancient authors, modem scholarship, and archaeological data this thesis will seek to show that although evidence for this trade in the Classical period is less plentiful than in other times, a Classical trade did exist. This work will also argue that spices were a part of the Classical period Greek market, and that these products were being consumed as luxury goods in order to showcase wealth and social status. Table of Contents List of Tables. V List of Abbreviations ,vi Introduction 1 Chapter I: Trade Routes ,4 Chapter II: The Spices 8 Chapter III: The Market and Perfume 38 Chapter IV: Conclusions 56 IV List of Figures Figure 1 Map of the Mediterranean World 3 Figure 2 Frankincense Tree, 9 Figure 3 Map of Arabian Peninsula and Somali Coast. 14 Figure 4 Commiphora Myrrha, the Myrrh Bush 17 Figure 5 Hellenistic Figurine from Myrrina, ,21 Figure 6 Cinnamomum verum 24 Figure 7 Cinnamomum aromaticum. 25 31 Figure 8 Map of Cyrene and North Africa. 36 Figure 9 Cyrenaean Coin showing Seated Woman. 36 Figure 10 Cyrenaean Coin showing Silphium Stalk. 37 Figure 11 Arkesilas Cup 50 Figure 12 Corinthian Aryballos 50 Figure 13 Siren Aryballos V List of Abbreviations Acut. De diaeta in morbis acutis Ale. Alcibiades Apol Apology CA. De curattone acutorum morborum libri duo CD. De curatione diuturnorum morborum libri duo Char. Characters Cyc. Cyclops Ec. Oeconomicus Hist. Histories II. Iliad Kn. Knights Nub. Clouds Nat. Hist. Natural Histories Od. Odyssey PI. Plutus Thuc. Thucydides Histories Tro. Trojan Women VI Introduction The 7th-century B.C. lyric poet Sappho tells us that "Myrrh, Cassia, and Frankincense rode on the wind."' These are the words that inspired this thesis. The fact that these three commodities are mentioned by Sappho, somewhat nonchalantly, as early the 7th century B.C. made me wonder how were these spices and aromatics reaching Greece? The topic of spice trade is an area which of course has garnered much study during the Prehistoric, Roman, and Medieval periods; while much less time has been given to the spice trade of the Classical Mediterranean. In the 5th and 4th centuries B.C., the evidence for spice trade is less abundant than in previous and subsequent periods; this lack of evidence does not, however, suggest that no such trade existed. Through the course of this work I will seek to show that a sophisticated spice trade existed in the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. Through many different connections among various cultures, inhabitants of the western Mediterranean had access to some of the precious aromatics and flavorings of the east, for a price of course. In chapter I, we will examine some of the trading and shipping connections in the classical Mediterranean world. In this section I will also introduce the Phoenicians, who were very important traders of antiquity. In chapter II, we will delve into the actual spices and aromatics that were available in to the ancient consumer. In particular we will look at frankincense, myrrh, cinnamon, cassia, and the mysterious extinct herb silphium. I will give a brief introduction to the botanical aspects of each plant and try to illuminate some of their Bamstone 2009, p. 31. 1 ancient uses. I will seek to pinpoint a location of origin for each commodity using information from the ancient sources and modem scholarship. Finally, in each of these sections I will outline some of the trade routes that have been proposed and will even propose a few of my own ideas as to how these spices and aromatics were conveyed. Chapter III will look at the ancient Greek market place, perfume, and market behavior. I will begin by introducing the reader to the Athenian Agora, a model marketplace of the Classical period. After this we will look at a product which is central to this paper, perfume. Finally, I will show that spices and aromatics were indeed luxury items and that they could be used as status symbols in ancient times. In some cases I will quote the ancient sources in both English and the original Greek or Latin; this will be done when specific terms are being discussed. In other places 1 will give only the English translation, where the vocabulary is not central to this thesis. I will follow Hesperia formatting for citation of sources. ^ Figure 1 shows a basic map of the Mediterranean world so that the reader may be fully acquainted with the places mentioned. 2 o N, C, f < '‘ Figure 1. Map of the Mediterranean World Source: Reed, C.M. 2003. Maritime Traders in the Ancient Greek World. Cambridge/New York. Map 1. 3 Chapter I. Trade Routes I would like to begin my analyses of the ancient spice trade by outlining the trade routes and the people who used them. In this section I seek to consider some trade connections between the Greeks of the Classical period and those with whom they interacted. While the spice trade in particular is the subject of this thesis, here I wish to showcase the broad commercial network of the Mediterranean; therefore some of the evidence presented below may not pertain to spices directly, but is presented to establish possible trade connection. Trade routes for particular commodities will be outlined in their respective sections. Within this section I also will give an introduction to some of the non-Greek civilizations who were essential to the complicated web of Mediterranean trade. Perhaps no group was as important to Mediterranean trade as the Phoenicians. The word Phoenician is the name given by the Greeks to a group of people who inhabited the Eastern Mediterranean in what is modem Lebanon, although they did not call themselves Phoenician.^ This name seems to stem from the Greek phoinix meaning purple-red; presumably the Phoenicians were given this name because of the distinctive purple dyed robes which they were known to trade."^ Our earliest mention of these people comes from Homer’s Odyssey, where the word OoiviKS(; is used,^ however they were in contact with the western Mediterranean much earlier. Both Herodotus and Pliny tell us ^ Aubet 1993, p. 12. ^ Moscati 1997, p. 18. ^ Homer, Od. 15.415. 4 that it was the Phoenicians from whom the Greeks adapted their own alphabet.^ Furthermore, the Phoenicians had already established colonies at Carthage and on Sicily by the 9th century B.C., so certainly the Greeks and Phoenicians were well acquainted by the Classical period. Perhaps what is more important to determine for the purpose of this section is their contacts in the Eastern Mediterranean. The Phoenicians seem to have established trade relations with their neighbors at a very early period. It seems likely that they were trading with Egypt, Anatolia, and Cyprus as early as 1200 B.C. In the following centuries the Phoenicians developed a trading network with the Kingdom of Israel certainly during the time of Solomon in the 10th century B.C. The Biblical sources tell us that Hiram, king of the Phoenician city-state of Tyre, sent Solomon ships and servants who knew the seas; these Phoenicians led an expedition from the port of Ezion-Geber (located at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba in modem Jordan) to the land of Ophir.^ The question then becomes where is Ophir? There are several possible locations. Early scholarship would like to place the town at the mouth of the Indus River on the border between modem Pakistan and India; ^however the most likely location is in modem Ethiopia.'^ At any rate, such an expedition would require the Phoenician as navigators to sail the entire length of the Red Sea even early as the 10th century B.C.

Load more

  67

Copy Link