Mentioned in the book of Genesis, the Middle East’s incense route for many centuries brought myrrh, frankincense, and other goods from present-day Yemen to the Levant, and from there to the entire Mediterranean world. A recent study of trash heaps left behind by the caravans that traversed this path between shows that, contrary to what archaeologists previously believed, commerce along this route went in both directions. Amanda Borschel-Dan writes:
The incense route was at its height during the Nabataean and Roman periods (roughly 300 BCE–300 CE) and linked the Arabian Peninsula and Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. It was the main thoroughfare for spice and perfume transport and is dotted by settlements and smaller roadside inns, or caravanserai.
Discovered organic materials [left behind by the caravans] include fish and shellfish that came from aquatic sources such as the Nile River, the Red Sea, and the Mediterranean, and fruits, including grapes or raisins, olives, pomegranates, and peaches. . . . At the same time, the archaeologists found potsherds from ceramics that originated in Petra in the east.
“Two millennia ago, the trade of perfumed oils and incense resins was extremely important in societies around the Mediterranean basin and prompted long-distance, intercultural contacts between places as far away as Southeast Asia, India, Yemen, Alexandria, and Rome. This is what makes working in sites along the Incense Road so very interesting,” the Israel Antiquities Authority’s Tali Erickson-Gini told the Times of Israel.
“Only a part of the incense road runs through Israel. The most intensely investigated part, and the shortest part, runs through southern Israel,” said Erickson-Gini. “Hopefully, in the future it will be possible to join forces with researchers working in neighboring countries.”
Read more on Times of Israel: https://www.timesofisrael.com/ancient-trash-a-treasure-in-mapping-first-steps-to-globalization-on-incense-route/