ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

"spices from the Far East in the Bible"

- CONTENT -
The spices from the Far East were already used in biblical times. The use of spices from the east is known as historical references in Egyptian writings, from the Bible and archaeological findings. Once they began using chemical materials detection methods in archaeology, they were able to better understand the use of spices. Understanding which spices have used, who used, where and when, in the context of spices from the east, will enable the past explorers to understand the ties and systems of prejudice between the East and the West, the practices of eating, worship and even aspects of social residual.

Chronological and geographer range
The biblical periods are a nickname for periods between history and classical periods. These periods are considered periods that reflect biblical numbers. There is no sweeping agreement on the periods contained within the biblical periods, but it is accepted that they begin in the chlocal period and end at the end of the Persian period. However, there is a consensus that the main length of biblical periods is during the Bronze Age (1200-3200 BCE in acceptable terminology) and the Iron Age (586-1200 BC in acceptable terminology).

The term “the Bible” refers mainly to the Near East.

spices from the east

The spices known in our region from the east are:
An walnut is a tree which is made of spices and the outer shell of the seed is extracted from another spice. Other products are aromatic oils and motif nuts. They were found in the Banda Islands group in Indonesia.
Hal is an annual herbic plant. Use the fruits of the completes or their seeds in a penin that enhances the taste of coffee and as an important component of spice mixes (wij, Carrie). He came from South India and Sri Lanka.
Zengbil is a multi-year herbaceous plant that reaches a height of a meter. It creates a thick-rooted vault and is usually recognized as a Berliner. Zengville can be used in various forms - fresh, dried, and sugar, as a syrup, as from sites and grind. Its exact origins are uncertain but it seems to have come from India or Malaysia.
A long curcumin – the grove is a two-year-old grass from the sensitiv family with an open-minded root. The spice is made from the expropriations that are pouring in boiling water, dryers, scratch the shell and drain the deposits to the powder. They grew up in tropical areas, especially in India.
Black pepper is a climbing plant from the pepper family. They came from India.
A nail – a nail is a spice made of dried flower solvers of a green tropical spice tree until the name of the pelvic nail from the family. Another name for the tree is Eugenia Caryophyllata. It was found in May of Mooko, called the “Ablin Islands”, in eastern Indonesia.
Cinnamon is a green tree type until the forest family. The inner shell of one of the teeth of the cinnamon is used in the cinnamon, both in its natural form and in the form of grinding powder. They found a message for breastfeeding. It was previously named Cinnamoum zeylanicum.

Sources of knowledge

The use of spices from the Far East during the Bible can be learned from Biblical and external historical sources as well as from archaeological sources. The historical sources except the biblical of the ages, which remind the point of spices from the Far East, are very few. More biblical sources, though, are more difficult. For, when it comes to learning from the biblical text about the use of spices from the east during the Bible, it should be taken into account that the identification of plants is uncertain, the time of writing the text is not agreed and therefore it is not clear which periods represent the different books. Archaeological evidence of spices from the east during the Bible is also flawed. This is because most of them come from old excavations and can be divided on the identification of the spice or period