The History of Spice Trade Pt1

This week's episode is an epic so I had to divide it in three parts!

Part One today and then part two next week, and the final part the week after.

The ancient spice route is inextricably linked with the Arabian peninsula. At first, this seems a little bit odd perhaps, and a little baffling. Why this inhospitable desert, is connected with the spice trade so closely?

In today's part one of our trilogy about the ancient history of the spices and spice trade, we'll get introduced to the climate, region and the people who inhabited the Arabian peninsula.

The ancient world was highly globalised and the Arabian traders were in the middle of a lucrative route; Insence and spices and precious, exotic luxury goods were coming from the East and used in the West, for many millennia. For rituals, for food and seen as items that bestowed power and authority to the person who possessed them. Were the magical tears of Frankinsence, much coveted by the Egyptian Nobility, the thing that kick-started the global race for spices?

Enjoy!

Music by Epidemic Sound and Motion Array except

Theme of The Delicious Legacy and end song by Pavlos Kapralos

Free Mily by Miltos Boumis

Voiceover actors appearing in order : Mark Knight, Baron Anastis, Jim Bryden, Rachael Louise Miller.

Sources:

The Periplous of the Erythraean Sea (ancient unknown author),

Roman Arabia by Bowersock

Cumin, Camels and Caravans - A Spice Odyssey by Gary Paul Nabhan

Food in the Ancient World from A to Z by Andrew Dalby.

Wikipedia : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnamon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Roman_trade_relations