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Spices, Gold and Precious Stones: The South Arabian Spice Trade
Alexandra Porter
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| Session 4 |
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Spices, Gold and Precious Stones
| Frankincense and myrrh were not the only spices that were traded by the South Arabians; cinnamon, cassia and dragon's blood were also precious commodities that were transported over long distances. The cinnamon that is familiar to us today comes from the bark of Cinnamonum verum, a tree that grows only in India and places farther east. Cassia, an inferior form of cinnamon, is also the bark of a tree, today known as Cinnamomum cassia. As noted earlier, Herodotus listed both cinnamon and cassia as products of Arabia: In fact, he thought that the South Arabians obtained cinnamon and cassia from the nests of large birds. According to him, because these birds' nests were built on mountain precipices that were impossible to climb, a cunning method was developed in order to access the sticks. The bodies of dead oxen were cut into very large pieces, and they were left on the ground near the nests. The birds would then fly down and carry off the meat to their nests. The nests, which were too weak to bear the weight of the large portions of meat, would break and fall to the ground. The cinnamon and cassia could then be gathered from the ground. Pliny reported from an earlier source that a variety of different types of cinnamon and cassia were brought to Arabia from Africa on rafts that came to Okelis in the third century BC, in the days when Okelis belonged to the king of Qataban. Many scholars at one time believed that cinnamon must actually have been imported from India and use references to cinnamon as evidence for early maritime contact between South Arabia and the East; however, it is unlikely that such long sea trading voyages were being made at such an early date. It is now thought that the cinnamon and cassia mentioned in the classical sources may actually have come from African or Arabian plants, which were forgotten after similar but superior products from India began to be imported in Roman times and took on their names. A plant called Qirfa (the present Arabic word for cinnamon), which grew in the Horn of Africa and in Arabia, has been suggested as a possibility. In antiquity cinnamon was used as a medicine and in ointments and perfumes. It is referred to in the Bible (Exodus 30:23) as an ingredient in holy oil. Dioscorides named cinnamon as being good for many numbers of illnesses, from coughs to diseases of the kidneys, and herbalists still suggest that it has carminative, astringent, stimulant and antiseptic properties. Dioscorides claimed that cassia had many uses as well; apparently it could help those bitten by snakes when taken as a drink and it could fade freckles if applied with honey. Dragon's blood
Dragon's blood, or cinnabar, is the resin from Dracaena cinnabari, a tree that grows on Socotra, an island in the Indian Ocean around 300 km south of the coast of Yemen. Socotra was also a source of spices in antiquity--aloes, frankincense and myrrh grow in abundance on this island--but the most bizarre of Socotra's natural resources by far is the Dragon's blood tree. The tree is a member of the lily family. Its thick branches fan out from the trunk, each with a tuft of spiky leaves at the end, to form a cone-shaped canopy. Strangely enough, this tree is a member of the lily family. Its berries are cherry-sized and pointed and when ripe they are covered with a red resin, the Dragon's blood, which is removed by steaming or shaking the berries or extracted by boiling the fruits. The resin is very brittle and is often sold in beads or tears, in sticks, irregular lumps, or in a reddish powder form. Dragon's blood was considered a very powerful medicine because it was thought to be a mixture of dragon and elephant blood. According to Pliny, the tree sprang up after a fight between an elephant and a dragon. Richard Eden, a sixteenth-century navigator, outlined the myth of how it was created: [Elephants] have continual warre against Dragons, which desire their blood, because it is very cold: and therfore the Dragon lying awaite as the Elephant passeth by, windeth his taile, being of exceeding length, about the hinder legs of the Elephant ... and when the Elephant waxeth faint, he falleth down on the serpent, being now full of blood, and with the poise of his body breaketh him: so that his owne blood with the blood of the Elephant runneth out of him mingled together, which being colde, is congealed into that substance which the Apothecaries call Sanguis Draconis, that is Dragons blood, otherwise called Cinnabaris. Dragon's blood is a very good dye; it was used as a colouring for varnishes and for dyeing horn to imitate tortoiseshell. In Soqotra it is used as a pigment for decorating pottery and as a remedy for eye and skin diseases and for stomach and headaches. Precious stones and gold
![[bull]](bull.jpg) | | The British Museum | | Gold bull. |
It is uncertain whether commodities other than frankincense and myrrh were exported from South Arabia in great quantities. According to the Bible, the Queen of Sheba "gave the king 120 talents of gold . . . and precious stones" (1 Kings 10:10). The Assyrian inscriptions of Sargon II and Sennacherib also claim that the Sabaeans sent them gifts of gold and precious stones. The classical authors suggest that gold and precious stones were to be found in great abundance in South Arabia. Diodorus Siculus, writing in the first century BC, stated, "In Arabia they also mine the so-called 'unrefined gold'.... It is found in nuggets about the size of sweet chestnuts and so like unto the flame in colour that, when jewellers use it as a setting for gems of the highest value, it makes the most gorgeous of all ornaments." He also described Arabia as a source of "outcrops of all sorts of gemstones of remarkable colour and radiant brilliance." In the Jawf region of Yemen, geologists have discovered very rich gold mines that were mined in antiquity. The ancient buildings discovered near the mines often contained ore-processing equipment including grinders, advils and hammer stones. Gold artefacts from South Arabia are very rare because they were often melted down, but this gold bull in the British Museum collection shows just how accomplished South Arabian goldsmiths were. Precious stones have also been found in Arabia, used in necklaces and as inlays. It would seem that there is some truth to the rumours about the rich gold and precious stone resources of South Arabia. |
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