The Tropical Turn: Agricultural Innovation in the Ancient Middle East and the Mediterranean

Agricultural innovation in the ancient Middle East and Mediterranean was significantly influenced by the long-distance dispersal of seven cultivated plants from tropical-subtropical South Asia, including rice, cotton, citrus fruits, eastern cucurbits, lotus, taro, and sissoo tree. This study, based on an interdisciplinary synthesis of archaeobotanical, archaeological, ethnobotanical, and historical-philological evidence, reveals that these plants were introduced between the mid-fourth millennium BCE and early centuries CE via maritime routes through the Persian/Arabian Gulf, Arabian Sea, and Red Sea. Philological comparisons, such as Sanskrit kārpāsa (cotton) and Akkadian karpassu, along with archaeobotanical findings, indicate that cotton was cultivated in Assyria for royal-palatial use by the 8th century BCE and in Bahrain before the 9th century BCE. Rice, another significant find, migrated from South Asia to Mesopotamia, likely as a foodstuff for merchants, but its cultivation was limited due to irrigation constraints and competition with endemic crops like flax and wheat. The study also challenges previous assumptions about the absence of citrus fruits in ancient Mesopotamia, suggesting that citron (Citrus medica) was present by the second millennium BCE, though its identification remains debated.

Dornauer, A. A. (2024). The Tropical Turn: Agricultural Innovation in the Ancient Middle East and the Mediterranean. Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies, 12(3), 326–333. https://doi.org/10.5325/jeasmedarcherstu.12.3.0326