Archaeology: Saffron

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Saffron Dec 9th 2011, 08:22 Saffron is a crazy expensive spice and pigment, that was domesticated around four thousand years ago by the Minoans. Probably. Detail of the Saffron Gatherers, a fresco on the walls of Xeste 3 at the Minoan site of Akrotiri in Greece. Image from H-sitt. Used for flavoring, aroma, dyes, and as a painkiller, the screaming yellow stuff today runs something like US$10 a gram--or about US$5000 a pound. The Minoans of ancient Greece may or may not have been people who domesticated saffron, but it was clearly of similar expense and symbolically important to them. Read more about Saffron domestication The Minoans Ancient Pigments and/or Plant Domestication

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