Herbs for Health and Beauty in Minoan Crete of 2000BC
By Cora Greenhill
herbsMost of us probably tend to think of industrial-related illnesses such as heavy metal
contamination as modern, post-industrialisation problems. But when we peer at exquisitely
delicate Bronze Age Minoan jewelry, figurines or large axes and copper cauldrons in the
museums, we are looking at potential health hazards for the craftswomen and men who made
them. Metalwork was highly developed in Crete as early as 2000BC, and some intriguing
evidence has come to light about the hazards faced by the makers and the medicines used to treat
those affected. In Chrysokamino in NE Crete, where copper and other metals were smelted, a
Bronze age slag heap was found. And it was on this slag heap that scientists found evidence not
only of the metals with potential hazards that included arsenic, but of the remains of a herbal
pharmacy!
Medical plants in Minoan Crete
Not since I was a child had I heard the term camphorated oil. In post-war England, I remember it
being rubbed on our chests from those ribbed bottles for childhood colds. But camphorated oils
were apparently used to treat the chest complaints of Minoan metalworkers as well. They were
made by a distillation process from oily herbs such as laurel, sage, and lavender. Scientist even
distinguished different processes that produced essential oils of these plants, from camphor
which is a degraded substance with different properties. Other medical plants identified included
coriander (of which huge quantities later appeared in the cuneiform accounts at Knossos), cumin,
dittany, rue, saffron, rosemary, safflower, anise, verbena, aleppo pine, myrtle and fig. Such a list
would be perfectly at home, I’m sure, in any modern herbalist’s!
Aromatic Oils in Minoan Crete
Meanwhile at around the same time in Apodoulou in the Amari Valley, (in the area of the temple
of Phaistos) similar techniques of distillation were being practiced but for different purposes. Just
as The Body Shop today sells essential oils for both aromatherapy and for perfumes, so the
pleasure-loving Minoans developed the science and art of perfume making. It is clear from
images of the gracefully adorned priestesses in their elaborate, revealing dresses, and the slim,
elegant, young men serving them, that the temple culture of Crete honoured the beauty and
pleasures of the body as sacred. No doubt this would have stimulated growth in the production of
substances that enhanced such pleasures, such as perfume, body oils and cosmetics.
In Chamalevri in West Crete as well as Apodoulou, there has been found evidence of the
production of aromatics by distillation since even before the great temple eras. Chamalevri was
producing aromatics before 2000 BC - the earliest such production ever found. Here complex
cosmetics were found, containing such ingredients as anise, carnations, beeswax, honey, olive oil
of course, and resin. And one other ingredient apparently still among the most precious
substances in the perfume industry today: oil of iris! The value placed on this substance over
time is attested to by the fact that 600 years later, at the end of the high Minoan era, jars with iris
decoration were still produced at this site and found at other sites, possibly in association with
funerary rites.
But how can we know that these exact substances were processed so long ago? Only the
techniques of organic residue analysis developed in recent years* has revealed the subtle
composition of ancient pharmacies. Minute fragments of organic materials are submitted to DNA
analysis, in the same way as the contents of food and cooking processes were revealed, as I
wrote about in my last minoan womanarticle. In the case of perfumes and cosmetics, residue was
analysed from the sharp blades of obsidian used for cutting the plants as well as from the vessels
used for distillation and the containers. Before this, it could only be guessed that a decoration of
iris flowers on a small stone box was a kind of label, but now we know it to be the case.
It seems that over time the domestic market for perfumes made in ancient Crete developed into
an international one, and perfumes based on iris oil may even have become one of Crete’s most
valuable exports. In cuneiform accounts found at Knossos, it seems that aromatic oils were
among the three most important products along with food and medicine. Could it be that this
glorious civilisation that so celebrated the vitality of nature and the grace of the human body, that
worshipped the divine in the power and beauty of women, was built on an economy based on the
manufacture and export of the world’s most expensive and desirable perfume? It’s an intriguing
and attractive theory! A trading empire built on art and perfume - beats WMD…
WIKI on Saffron
Saffron played a significant role in the Greco-Roman pre-classical period bracketed by the 8th
century BC and the 3rd century AD.[22] The first known image of saffron in pre-Greek culture is
much older and stems from the Bronze Age. A saffron harvest is shown in the Knossos palace
frescoes of Minoan Crete,[23] which depict the flowers being picked by young girls and
monkeys. One of these fresco sites is located in the "Xeste 3" building at Akrotiri, on the Aegean
island of Santorini—the ancient Greeks knew it as "Thera". These frescoes date from 1600–1500
BC,[12] but various other dates have been given: 3000–1100 BC[24] or the 17th century BC.[25]
They portray a Minoan goddess supervising the plucking of flowers and the gleaning of stigmas
for use in the manufacture of what is possibly a therapeutic drug.[24] A fresco from the same site
also depicts a woman using saffron to treat her bleeding foot.[12] These "Theran" frescoes are
the first botanically accurate visual representations of saffron's use as an herbal remedy.[24] This
saffron-growing Minoan settlement was ultimately destroyed by a powerful earthquake and
subsequent volcanic eruption sometime between 1645 and 1500 BC. The volcanic ash from the
destruction entombed and helped preserve these key herbal frescoes.[26]
Ancient Greek legends tell of brazen sailors embarking on long and perilous voyages to the
remote land of Cilicia, where they traveled to procure what they believed was the world's most
valuable saffron.[27] The best-known Hellenic saffron legend is that of Crocus and Smilax: The
handsome youth Crocus sets out in pursuit of the nymph Smilax in the woods near Athens; in a
brief dallying interlude of idyllic love Smilax is flattered by his amorous advances, but all too
soon tires of his attentions. He continues his pursuit; she resists. She bewitches Crocus: he is
transformed—into a saffron crocus. Its radiant orange stigmas were held as a relict glow of an
undying and unrequited passion.[28] The tragedy and the spice would be recalled later:
“
Crocus and Smilax may be turn'd to flow'rs,
And the Curetes spring from bounteous show'rs
I pass a hundred legends stale, as these,
And with sweet novelty your taste to please.[29]
”
—Ovid, Metamorphoses.
For the ancient Mediterraneans, saffron gathered around the Cilician coastal town of Soli was of
top value, particularly for use in perfumes and ointments. Herodotus and Pliny the Elder,
however, rated rival Assyrian and Babylonian saffron from the Fertile Crescent as best—to treat
gastrointestinal or renal upsets.[22] Greek saffron from the Corycian Cave of Mount Parnassus
was also of note:[30] the color offered by the Corycian crocus is used as a benchmark in the
Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius[N 1] and similarly with its fragrance in the epigrams of
Martial.[31]
Cleopatra of late Ptolemaic Egypt used a quarter-cup of saffron in her warm baths, as she prized
its colouring and cosmetic properties. She used it before encounters with men, trusting that
saffron would render lovemaking yet more pleasurable.[32] Egyptian healers used saffron as a
treatment for all varieties of gastrointestinal ailments: when stomach pains progressed to internal
hemorrhaging, an Egyptian treatment consisted of saffron crocus seeds mixed and crushed
together with aager-tree remnants, ox fat, coriander, and myrrh. This ointment or poultice was
applied to the body. The physicians expected it to "[expel] blood through the mouth or rectum
which resembles hog's blood when it is cooked".[33] Urinary tract conditions were also treated
with an oil-based emulsion of premature saffron flowers mixed with roasted beans; this was used
topically on men. Women ingested a more complex preparation.[34]
In Greco-Roman times saffron was widely traded across the Mediterranean by the Phoenicians.
Their customers ranged from the perfumers of Rosetta, in Egypt, to physicians in Gaza to
townsfolk in Rhodes, who wore pouches of saffron in order to mask the presence of malodorous
fellow citizens during outings to the theatre.[35] For the Greeks, saffron was widely associated
with professional courtesans and retainers known as the hetaerae. Large dye works operating in
Sidon and Tyre used saffron baths as a substitute; there, royal robes were triple-dipped in deep
purple dyes; for the robes of royal pretenders and commoners, the last two dips were replaced
with a saffron dip, which gave a less intense purple hue.[36]
The ancient Greeks and Romans prized saffron as a perfume or deodoriser and scattered it about
their public spaces: royal halls, courts, and amphitheatres alike. When Nero entered Rome they
spread saffron along the streets; wealthy Romans partook of daily saffron baths. They used it as
mascara, stirred saffron threads into their wines, cast it aloft in their halls and streets as a
potpourri, and offered it to their deities. Roman colonists took saffron with them when they
settled in southern Roman Gaul, where it was extensively cultivated until the AD 271 barbarian
invasion of Italy. Competing theories state that saffron only returned to France with 8th-century
Moors or with the Avignon Papacy in the 14th century.[37]