BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

Vanilla-Spiced Afterlife at Canaanite Megiddo

Tracing the ancient origins of vanilla

Ancient mound of Megiddo, where vanilla-infused oil was found in Area H. Courtesy The Megiddo Expedition

For centuries, the earliest documented exploitation of domesticated vanilla was known from the Aztecs, who cultivated the flat-leafed species (Vanilla planifolia) in central Mexico around 1300 CE. Remarkably, however, archaeologists excavating at the site of Tel Megiddo in northern Israel have now obtained scientific proof for the use of a vanilla-spiced oil dating back to the mid-second millennium BCE, marking the spice’s earliest known use anywhere in the ancient world.¹

Vanilla spice comes from different orchid species within the genus Vanilla that grow in various tropical regions across the globe. Its aromatic compounds are derived primarily from the plant’s fruit pods but can also be obtained by seeping the plant whole. So how did vanilla-spiced oil end up at Megiddo?

In the second millennium BCE, this important Canaanite city-state controlled the western part of the Jezreel Valley and the international road that ran through the region, connecting Egypt with Syria and Mesopotamia. Unsurprisingly, material evidence from the site reveals that local elites participated in international trade networks. Particularly clear evidence for trade comes from the Megiddo tombs.

Tomb 50, which dates to the Middle Bronze Age III (c. 1650–1550 BCE), is a monumental stone-built tomb that was typical of the second-millennium Levant. It was undisturbed and contained three primary inhumations: an adult male, an adult female, and a youth, who were lying beside at least six secondary inhumations, together with an assemblage of elite grave goods, which included gold, silver, bronze, and bone items. There was also a large assemblage of pottery, including two Cypriot vessels.

Nearly two dozen of the tomb’s vessels were sampled and tested with organic residue analysis to identify their original contents. In three small juglets, the analysis detected significant amounts of the principal components of natural vanilla, including vanillin, as well as lower concentrations of 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde and acetovanillone (compounds derivative of vanillin). These compounds are the earliest archaeological evidence for the exploitation of a vanilla-infused oil in the Old World and most probably worldwide.

Of the 110 known vanilla species, nearly three dozen are aromatic. Although today the most widely exploited is Vanilla planifolia, which yields the highest concentration of vanillin and makes up 95 percent of the world’s commercial vanilla, there are at least four known aromatic vanilla species that could have been exploited as early as the second millennium BCE. These are Vanilla poly­lepis, which is endemic to central East Africa, and Vanilla albida, Vanilla abundiflora, and Vanilla griffithii, all of which are endemic to Southeast Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Indonesia). Ethnographic evidence shows that these orchids are grown locally or harvested in the wild and are used as a flavoring agent, spice, aromatic, food, or medicine. These four species are the most likely source of the vanilla found at Megiddo. It is possible that the vanilla pod as well as the entire plant were used to extract vanilla-enriched oil.

Pottery with traces of vanilla, excavated from Tomb 50 at Megiddo. Courtesy The Megiddo Expedition

The first half of the second millennium BCE saw the establishment of long-distance trading systems in the ancient Near East. The most famous was the Old Assyrian network that connected the city of Ashur with the Anatolian plateau. Literary sources report on intense trade between large urban centers in Mesopotamia (e.g., Ashur and Mari) and places as distant as Dilmun (modern-day Bahrain), the Indus Valley, and Afghanistan. This is one route by which vanilla could have arrived from South and Southeast Asia.

However, the African trade system should also be considered as a potential source for Megiddo’s vanilla. Egypt in particular held long-lasting connections with the so-called land of Punt, somewhere in East Africa, which served as a source of gold and many exotic items, including aromatic resins, black wood, ebony, ivory, and wild animals. Granite blocks erected at ancient Memphis during the early 12th Dynasty (19th century BCE) detail the activities of King Amenemhet II, including Egypt’s commercial relations with the Levant by land and sea. Furthermore, evidence for Egyptian trade with southern India or Sri Lanka in the late 13th century can be seen in the peppercorns used for the mummification of Ramesses II.

While long-distance trade between the Far East, Egypt, and the Levant is well known from later antiquity, the vanilla compounds found in the Megiddo juglets point to the existence of such networks in earlier periods, when shipping methods were relatively similar. It is then not surprising that the product found its way into the main cultural and economic centers of the ancient Near East. The elites of Megiddo, living by one of the region’s main international arteries, could have had access to vanilla through either Egypt or the Levantine city-states and trade centers, such as Hazor and Ashkelon.

Finally, why might Megiddo’s wealthy have been buried with vanilla-spiced oil? A recent study on Egyptian embalming practices revealed the presence of plant oil, resin, and an aromatic plant extract in funerary textiles already in the mid-fourth millennium BCE.² Amazingly, the same compounds were used to treat corpses across the entire history of ancient Egypt—from prehistoric burials to pharaonic and Greco-Roman mummies. Significantly, this ancient recipe contained antibacterial agents employed much like the vanilla-infused oil found in the juglets from Megiddo. Like the Egyptian embalmers, Megiddo’s residents probably recognized the qualities of vanilla, which they may have used for embalming rites, cultic practices, medicine, or to flavor food and drink.

Vanessa Linares is a lecturer in the Department of Archaeological Sciences at the University of Haifa, Israel.

Notes

1. See Vanessa Linares et al., “First Evidence for Vanillin in the Old World: Its Use as Mortuary Offering in Middle Bronze Canaan,” Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 25 (2019), pp. 77–84.

2. See Jana Jones et al., “A Prehistoric Egyptian Mummy: Evidence for an ‘Embalming Recipe’ and the Evolution of Early Formative Funerary Treatments,” Journal of Archaeological Science 100 (2018), pp. 191–200.