432
Documenta Praehistorica XLVIII (2021)
Origins and domestication
Garlic (Allium sativum) is a sterile and perennial
plant. It is propagated through a vegetative method.
The wild ancestry of garlic has not been definitely
established yet, and nor has its place of domestica-
tion (Fritsch, Friesen 2002. 26; Zohary, Hopf, Weiss
2012). Daniel Zohary (1998) believes that garlic is
a native crop of Southwest Asia, the Mediterranean
and temperate Europe, but does not explain if its
use of ‘native’ is equal to ‘naturalised’, and this re-
mains a bone of contention for some. However it
seems that this possible distribution agrees with
Reinhard M. Fritsch and Nikolai Friesen (2002). The
cultivars are believed to be the closest morphological-
ly and molecularly to A. longicuspis Regel1 (Stearn
The archaeology of garlic (Allium sativum)>
the find at Akrotiri, Thera, Greece
Anaya Sarpaki
Independent scholar, Tsikalaria (Chania), GR
a.sarpaki@gmail.com
ABSTRACT – Recent finds of garlic from Late Bronze Age Akrotiri, Thera have led to research relat-
ed to the historical, economic and social aspects of its use in the archaeological narrative. Garlic is
an important domesticated plant in our lore, medicine, mythology, cooking, and ethnography, and
is now ubiquitous in everyday use. Previously, we knew of its importance in historical periods, espe-
cially since Roman times, when its use extended to all of Europe and beyond. Archaeobotanical in-
vestigations have extended the prehistoric and historical knowledge of this crop, providing some evi-
dence as to how it was regarded, what were its possible uses and its changing status, diachronically.
Here, therefore, it is an attempt to provide an overview of the related archaeological finds and, briefly,
its references in ancient texts.
IZVLE∞EK – Nedavna odkritja ≠esna na pozno bronastodobnem naselju Akrotiri na otoku Thera so
privedla do raziskav, ki so povezana z zgodovinskimi, gospodarskimi in dru∫benimi vidiki njegove
uporabe v okviru arheolo∏ke pripovedi. ∞esen, ki je dandanes vseprisoten v vsakdanji rabi, je po-
membna kultivirana rastlina v na∏em izro≠ilu, zdravilstvu, mitologiji, kuhinji in etnografiji. Pomen
≠esna v zgodovinskih obdobjih ∫e poznamo, predvsem od rimskega obdobja naprej, ko se je njegova
uporaba raz∏irila po vsej Evropi in ∏ir∏e. Arheobotani≠ne raziskave so diahroni≠no raz∏irile na∏e po-
znavanje tega pridelka v prazgodovinskih in zgodovinskih obdobjih, saj prina∏ajo dokaze o tem, ka-
ko so ≠esen v preteklosti obravnavali, na kak∏ne na≠ine so ga uporabljali in kako se je njegova vlo-
ga spreminjala skozi ≠as. V ≠lanku ponujamo pregled s tem povezanih arheolo∏kih najdb, pa tudi
kraj∏i pregled referenc iz starodavnih besedil.
KEY WORDS – garlic; Allium sativum; onion; Allium cepa; Akrotiri; Thera; Aegean; prehistory
KLJU∞NE BESEDE – ≠esen; Allium sativum; ≠ebula; Allium cepa; Akrotiri; Thera; Egejski prostor; prazgo-
dovina
Arheologija ;esna (Allium sativum)>
najdbe iz Akrotirija, Thera, Gr;ija
DOI> 10.4312\dp.48.20
1 A. longicuspis Regel is sometimes used as a synonym of Allium sativum.
The archaeology of garlic (Allium sativum)> the find at Akrotiri, Thera, Greece
433
soft parts which are not parched or force-dried in
an oven before storage, and if thrown in the fire
(hearth) would most probably burn completely, or
transform into an amorphous mass, instead of being
charred and preserved with a recognizable morpho-
logy, due to both the consistency and essential oils
contained in garlic. Another reason for its rarity in
the archaeobotanical evidence could also be related
to the way garlic was consumed, i.e. as an additive
in foods, either sliced or mashed, as well as due to
its storage needs, which do not benefit archaeolo-
gical preservation. Specifically, garlic cannot be stor-
ed in pottery for a long time as humidity rots it and,
instead, needs to be hung in an airy and shady place,
often outdoors.
Syro-Levantine area
Zohary et al. (2012) claim that the earliest archaeo-
botanical finds of garlic (Allium sativum L.) come
from the ‘Cave of the Treasure’, Nahal Mishmar, near
Ein Gedi in Israel and has been dated to the Middle
Chalcolithic period (Ghassulian Culture) (BM-140,
reed (inner) (4425–3920 BCE; W-1341, reed (outer)
(3885–3490 BCE) (Moorey 1988). Garlic was said to
be found in two samples and onions in three sam-
ples by David V. Zaitschek (1961; 1962), who stud-
ied the archaeobotanical remains and said that they
belonged partly to the Chalcolithic and partly to
the Roman period. Due to the dryness of the envi-
ronment, these samples were excellently preserved
in a desiccated form. However, the mat which wrap-
ped the objects of the hoard together with the or-
ganic remains was 14C dated, and it provided a date
of c. 3500 BCE (Aardsma 2001), which would re-
fer to the Chalcolithic of the Syro-Palestine area. In
Peter Moorey’s (1988) publication though, it is
claimed that the mat was centuries old when it was
deposited, so the dates for the garlic are definitely
more recent than c. 3500 BCE. It would probably
be worth submitting the garlic to AMS dating, since
these figures remain controversial. However, the
find of Nahal Mishmar is rather broadly contempo-
raneous to the Egyptian Pedynastic (see below), if
not proven to be dated later.
In the Hellenistic period, in the area which is today
Israel, in Cave V/49, the remains of two garlic heads
and six single cloves (bulbils) were found. The head
had a diameter of c. 1.6cm and it was still covered
by its tunic (Melamed 2002). In the Roman period,
1978; Gi-An Lee et al. 2015). Recent studies on DNA
markers demonstrated that A. longicuspis Regel is
not a distinct species from common garlic (Ipek et
al. 2003). It therefore makes sense that it is some-
times used as a synonym of A. sativum (The Plant
List (Kew): http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/reco
rd/kew-295919). A. longicuspis Regel is found in
east Turkey, Iran and Central Asia (one could call
this area central to south and east Asia, which today
also includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan), which together seem to
be the main centre of garlic diversity and most pro-
bably the area of its domestication. Another three
species, A. tuncelianum (Kollmann) (native to south-
east Turkey) (Ipek et al. 2008), A. macrochaetum
Boiss. & Hauskn. (native to south-west Asia) (Zohary
et al. 2012.157), and A. truncatum (Feinbr.) Kol-
lman and Zohary (native to the Levant) have been
suggested as possible candidates of being the ance-
stor of domesticated garlic, but this remains an un-
proven hypothesis.2 All four smell, though, like do-
mesticated garlic, and it remains to be proven if, in
antiquity, these might have been used instead of cul-
tivated garlic.
Agriculture of garlic
Garlic is now harvested from March to April, and hi-
storically Alliaceae were generally cultivated in gar-
dens denoted by a special word in Sumerian which
referred to ‘garlic place’ (Stol 1987.65). The har-
vested crop was measured in dry measure. For the
onion Allium cepa L., it is known that a ‘container
of onions’ had a capacity of 5–40 litres, and they
could have been counted using any of the related
measuring units, such as container, sack, bundle or
even by volume, but they were never measured by
weight (Donbaz 1999.150). This could well have
been the way garlic was measured and sold, too.
After harvest, the bulbs could have been packed in
baskets or strung into strings or bundles. This bun-
dling was done by women, as shown in an Ur III
text. After harvest, one had to dry garlic and onions,
and this was done outside or on a roof3 (evidence
from texts) (Stol 1987.66). Onions, it seems, were
sometimes plaited.
The archaeobotanical evidence
The archaeobotanical evidence of garlic is very rare
in archaeology, as the cloves and bulbs consist of
2 Allium ursinum does not exist in Greece or in several Mediterranean countries.
3 This would have been very important as the slightest humidity would have led to their rotting.
Anaya Sarpaki
434
in the Cave of the Pool (Zaitschek 1962) a ‘disc-like
bulb-stem with rootlets of garlic (Allium sativum)’
was also identified.
India
Anurudh K. Singh (2017) believes that garlic might
have been introduced into India through the land
route via exchange/trade between Mesopotamia,
Egypt and India during the Mohenjo-Daro period
(c. 3000 BCE). With regard to the Mature Harappan
(2000–1700 BCE), remains of garlic (Allium sati-
vum) were found at the sites of Balu, Haryana and
Farmana (Singh 2017; Pokharia, Srivastava 2013).
According to Singh (2017.196) the evidence sug-
gests multiple introductions of garlic into India from
the Middle East at different periods. Singh believes
that garlic was perhaps reintroduced during the con-
quest of Alexander the Great, in the 4th century BCE
(327–325 BCE). This is indicated by one of its San-
skrit names, Yavanpriya, which means ‘likings of
the Greeks’ (Yavan is used for the Greeks). Kajale
(1994) reports some cloves from Indo-Roman levels
(50 BCE–200 AD) from the archaeological site of
Adam, in the district of Nagpur, in the Maharashtra
State. However, Singh (2017) believes that in the
area of today’s Pakistan there might have been ano-
ther (secondary) centre of origin, with garlic dome-
sticated independently by ancient Indian communi-
ties, but this still needs verification. In brief, then,
garlic could have been introduced into India through
trade with Mesopotamia and Egypt c. 3000 BCE, and
reintroduced several times, so the picture remains,
to a great extent, hypothetical and needs further col-
lection of archaeobotanical data from sites in the
area, and from various time periods, in order to cla-
rify the various routes of introduction.
Babylon
In sample PR 5206 from Sippar-Amnanum (modern
Tell ed Der) (19th–17th BCE) about 350 charred clo-
ves were identified, among other plants, (Van Zeist,
Vynckier 1984.125–128, Fig. 2), and they were con-
sidered rather small in size, i.e. length 1.47cm (1.0–
1.9cm), and their width 0.67cm (0.5–1.0cm). They
were found in sounding E, from the rooms of the
archives which were destroyed by fire c. 1630 BCE.
From Tell al Rimah (13th century BCE) there is a
contract recording 84 litres of garlic (Postgate 1987.
98). Other Old Babylonian texts (Andersson 2008)
(2000–1600 BCE) also mention a fairly large culti-
vation at Larsa of a ‘36 000m2 garlic garden’, and
the collection of garlic for tax. It is also interesting
that the Old Babylonian texts refer to a ‘plait of oni-
ons or garlic’ (Kroonen 2012.293). This string/plait
seems to have been used as a standard measure for
garlic and onions by the speakers of Akkadian (Kro-
onen 2012.294). However, it is known that onions, in
several varieties, were widely consumed in the whole
Near East (Waetzoldt 1987; Donbaz 1999.149) as
early as the Ebla texts (c. 2600–2450 BCE).
Egypt
Garlic has been found in its wild state in Egypt and,
therefore, believed to have been naturalized there
(Darby et al. 1977.657). Egypt also provides early
evidence of this crop found by Petrie at Naqada (Ne-
qada culture), whereby at this Chalcolithic, Predy-
nastic period (c. 4400–3000 BCE), a clay model of
garlic was found (Darby et al 1977.Fig. 17.1). A clay
model was also found in the Predynastic cemetery
of Al-Mahasna (Darby et al. 1977.660), and at the ce-
metery of Umm el Qabb at Abydos (Murray 2000).
These finds were made of white unbaked clay in the
shape of cloved garlic bulbs. The presence of clay
models of garlic, rather than the actual crop, must
mean something, which will eventually need to be
explained. Was garlic in those early times a rare and
expensive commodity, and, moreover, one which
encapsulated a ritual symbolism of protection and/
or apotropaic against evil forces, and thus important
for rituals? In the Harris papyrus there is also refe-
rences to garlic (20th dynasty). Moreover, the find at
Nahal Mishmar, Israel, is, rather broadly contempo-
raneous with the Egyptian Predynastic find, if not
proven to be later.
To date desiccated garlic has only been found from
the 18th dynasty and in later tombs. Tutankhamun’s
tomb (c. 1325 BCE) provided excellently preserved
desiccated remains (Vartavan 2002; Vartavan, Amó-
ros 1997; Hepper 1990; Germer 1989),4 and at
Amarna there are also remains from the 18th dyna-
sty. The Ebers papyrus (1550 BCE) describes about
800 medical formulas, 22 of which mention garlic
as being an effective remedy for a variety of ail-
ments such as headaches, heart problems, worms,
tumours and bites (Block 1985), to mention just a
few of the plant’s medicinal uses at this time. At the
Serapeum of Saqqara, northwest of the Pyramid of
4 In the Cairo Museum no. Sp.2795 garlic buds were identified by Jane Renfrew (Vartavan 2002.32), and in the same institution no.
1580 garlic bulbs were identified (Vartavan, Amóros 1997.41).
The archaeology of garlic (Allium sativum)> the find at Akrotiri, Thera, Greece
435
Djoser (c. 1350 BCE), garlic was also found in the
sacred underground temple (Aboelsoud 2010). The
remains of desiccated garlic were also located in the
New Kingdom (18th dynasty) at Deir el-Medineh
(Kha’s Tomb) (Darby et al. 1977.Fig. 17.2; Vartavan,
Amóros 1997).
From Saqqara, in the Hellenistic period (c. 400 BCE),
a bundle of garlic is housed at Kew Gardens, London
(pers. communication Mark Nesbitt – Kew cat. no.
26541; 26548; 26848 (bundle of garlic)). Large scale
garlic cultivation during the Ptolemaic period was
conducted in the Fayum (3rd century BCE) (Crawford
1973). Several sites from the Greco-Roman period
have produced garlic, such as Hawara, Mons Claudia-
nus, Berenike, and Abu Sha’ar, as well as Roman and
Islamic Quseir al-Qadim and Qasr Ibrim (Murray
2000; for a list of finds see Vartavan, Amóros 1997).
The site of Ismant el-Kharab (Dakhleh Oasis), Egypt,
was occupied from the 1st to the 4th centuries CE
and has burials of the Ptolemaic period (Kellis I), so
the settlement might have been in use then too. The
finds from Kellis include garlic cloves (Thanheisser
et al. 2002.304).
Substantial data has been preserved regarding gar-
lic-growing under the Ptolemies in Graeco-Roman
times, due to the references made by Greek and Ro-
man writers, such Athenaeus, Herodotus, Dioscouri-
des, Theophrastus, Pliny, Columella, and Palladius,
and also due to the many preserved Egyptian pa-
pyri. Dioscurides (1st century BCE) reports that Egyp-
tian garlic was white and not split into cloves (Craw-
ford 1973.351), although this trait was not depict-
ed on the clay garlics of the Predynastic period (c.
4400–3000 BCE). In the area of the Fayum, the Pto-
lemies had done major works related to reclama-
tion of land and agricultural innovation (Crawford
1973.351), and they wished to introduce new strains
of garlic, namely garlic with cloves. However, this
aspect is still disputed as the early garlic clay mod-
els, mentioned above, showed cloves. Could this in-
dicate that the strain preserved in the historical pe-
riod was different from the prehistoric strains? Theo-
phrastus and Pliny (Crawford 1973.355) refer to
garlic varieties in Egypt which had short growing pe-
riods, such as 60 days. Various ancient agricultural
writers such as Theophrastus, Columella, Pliny and
Palladius describe the process of garlic cultivation in
detail (O.c.). At Oxyrhyncha, Egypt, in the 2nd cen-
tury BCE the cultivation of garlic must have been
highly organized and exceedingly profitable (Craw-
ford 1973.361). It is believed that a high percentage
of the population was involved in this production,
and therefore one could claim an early form of mo-
no-culture and crop specialization.
The time-table of garlic cultivation was variable. Some
garlic was grown in the summer in small market gar-
dens, not reached by the Nile flood, or in among
vines (Crawford 1973.355, note 2). When garlic was
grown on a large scale, the planting of the cloves was
done in areas where the Nile flood receded. Garlic-
growing on a sizeable scale seems to have been in-
troduced in the 3rd century BCE. This was planted
in late November, whereas elsewhere it could have
been planted earlier, as mentioned above. Lease ag-
reements give us insight of when it was harvested,
which seems to have been in January. In a papyrus
(Crawford 1973.360) the growers seem to harvest
and dispose of the crop by the end of the first week
in January, which indicates a very quick growing va-
riety of garlic and perhaps an early sowing date. In
a papyrus from Euempolos to Zenon, Tloic and Oasi-
tic garlic is mentioned (Crawford 1973.356). What
is interesting is the phrase “I’ll bind it according to
type...” which would perhaps be an indication of the
manner it was transported, i.e. plaited but also ac-
cording to variety/quality. Moreover, there is men-
tion of the importation and acquisition of a ‘Lycian
variety’. In the same papyri Euempolos mentions
people cultivating foreign strains of garlic, so we can
be sure that there was a market in Alexandria and
elsewhere for garlic, especially as garlic growing
continued in the northeast Fayum into the Roman
period. In the Oxyrhyncha papyrus, second century
BCE, there were two specialist garlic-sellers, so we
are sure there was a special emphasis on the crop
and that probably a sizeable number of people must
have been engaged in the production and distribu-
tion of garlic. At Kerkeosiris (town) (111–110 BCE)
0.3% of the cultivated land was used for garlic for
domestic use (Crawford 1973.360). Jobs related to
garlic were specialized, such as garlic-sellers, or skor-
dopoles (σκορδοπωλαι), and workers in the garlic
fields were skordeutes (σκορδευται).
Anatolia
At Sardis (mid-6th BCE) (Nesbitt 1995) a group of
cloves was found at the base of a wall which could
have fallen from above (a shelf?). The Iron Age ma-
terial was not been published but has been passed
on to Erica Rowan for completion, at the Royal Hol-
loway (Nesbitt pers. comm.). In Turkey, garlic does
not seem to be found from other sites until around
the 1st century BCE.
Anaya Sarpaki
436
Northern Europe and finds in the Roman Empire
In the Roman period garlic must have spread to
northern Europe, firstly in military camps, and then
to other civilian sites (Bakels, Jacomet 2003) as the
Roman armies travelled and traded with the lands
north and west of Italy. It might have been used as
a luxury, at first, but lost its status once it was culti-
vated locally (O.c. 554). From the 400 sites exam-
ined, only in under 10 sites was garlic found, which
convinced the authors to conclude that this low
number was due to the plant’s bad preservation ra-
ther than to the rarity of its use. Manfred Rösch
(2008) claims that several cultivated Allium species
were introduced by the Romans, but he does not
state which, and notes that all wild Allium species
are edible, so they could have been consumed too.
He is probably referring to Allium species which
were of local origin, and were edible but were not
related to cultivated garlic.
Garlic was found in Herculaneum (Italy), France
(Vandorpe, Jacomet 2011) and in post-Roman Bri-
tain and Switzerland (Badura et al. 2013.4070). It
was likely widely propagated in the whole of the
Roman Empire, but due to its low probability of pre-
servation the actual garlic finds are few and far be-
tween. It was often hung in the entrance of houses,
in the belief that it drove away evil spirits (Pliny
XIX.34), a belief that still survives to the present in
some cultures.
Archaeobotany and evidence from Greece
Conditions that would have enabled the preservation
of soft tissue organic material remains at Akrotiri
(Late Bronze Age, c. 1600 BCE) are rare, as the tem-
peratures of ejected ash (Braadbaart et al. 2019)
would have worked against the preservation of such
material.
In Building I at Palaikastro, Crete (Sarpaki 2019.
358), one clove from LM III B (≥1100 BCE) has been
tentatively identified as garlic (cf. Allium sativum),
but preservation on that site is exceptionally poor.
In a recent publication though, on the archaeobotany
of Tsoungiza (Allen, Forste 2020), in a domestic con-
text dated to Late Helladic (LH) I levels (c. 1500
BCE), identified 21 cloves and 35 fragments (West
Building room 2) and in LH IIB (c. 1400 BCE), in the
dump deposit above wall 3, space 8, another 15 clo-
ves were found. These are the earliest archaeobota-
nical finds of garlic in Greece, so far, together with
the Akrotiri finds (LCI), although, in the Hellenistic,
Classical and Roman periods, we assume that garlic
was definitely circulating widely. Yet up until re-
cently the tangible presence of garlic in the Aegean
was elusive, although its annotation in the Linear B
indicated, indirectly, its presence. Given the Pre-
Greek names in Linear B of garlic, ‘αγλις’ (αγλιθος
= clove of garlic) and gelgis ‘γελγις’ (γελγιθος), an
interpretation of the terms as Akkadian loanwords
has been put forward (Kroonen 2012). If this is ac-
cepted, it would be interesting to consider that Ak-
kadian was used in the Mesopotamian Empires, in
the area of Akkad, Assyria, Isin, Larsa and Babylon
and, being the ligua franca, is also suggested to
have been used in the Syro-Levantine coast and Ana-
tolia (Vita 2020). Therefore, one would think that
garlic might have been introduced in the Bronze Age
from that part of the world. However, the ancient
Greek term which was later used was changed to
‘σκορ(ο)δον’, a non-Indo-European word found in Old
Armenian, and/or from a language in the Pontic area
(Beekes 2010.1358; Chantraine 1968–1980). This
implies at least two waves of garlic introduction into
Greece and from different areas, and perhaps of dif-
ferent varieties. We are aware that the inhabitants
of Greece in the Iron Age, and perhaps slightly ear-
lier, settled in Sinope and along the coast and form-
ed several colonies in the Iron Age on the shores of
the Pontus Sea (Black Sea). The term ‘σκορ(ο)δον’
probably replaced the borrowed Akkadian Bronze
Age term ‘γελγις’ at this time, when there might have
been an intensification of trade to and from the
Black Sea, and the Greek colonies, to Greece.
In Classical Greece, at the time of Aristotle and Hip-
pocrates, garlic, ‘σκορ(ο)δον’, seemed to have been
a staple (Totelin 2015) and was also used as a me-
dicine (Rivlin 2001). At the women-only Athenian
festival Skira (Skirophoria), women consumed large
quantities of garlic in order to keep their husbands
at bay, due to the smell, and abstain from sex (as re-
ported by the historian Philochorus (3rd BCE) (Tote-
lin 2015). However, there are frequent descriptions
of the uses of garlic in herbalism by the Babyloni-
ans, Egyptians, Phoenicians, Chinese, Greeks, Ro-
mans and Hindus, and it is one of the most widely
used plants in ethno-medicine, although this is a to-
pic which cannot be dealt with here.
In the Hellenistic period, garlic was also consumed
in large quantities (Totelin 2015). At Thasos, garlic
(18 cloves and fragments) has been found in the ne-
cropolis (4th century BCE) (Megaloudi et al. 2007),5
5 Fragkiska Megaloudi (2005.80) wrongly refers to 55 carbonized garlic cloves in a grave (Thassos) which is either a spelling mis-
take or else a wrong number. The real number is mentioned in her 2007 reference, and it is the number quoted in the text above.
The archaeology of garlic (Allium sativum)> the find at Akrotiri, Thera, Greece
437
and was also found in Italy and Bulgaria (Hristova
2015) in tombs indicating that the plants were used
for the dead, as mentioned by Fragkiska Megaloudi
et al. (2007) inter alia, whereas, it did not differ
from food eaten by the living. The usage, though,
might have had different and/or complementary
connotations, and we still have no knowledge of
the symbolism and role played by garlic in death
rites. Its presence though must have played a pro-
tective role, amongst others, for the dead6.
Akrotiri
At the site of Akrotiri (Fig. 1), it is cloves rather than
bulbs of garlic that have been found (Fig. 2), al-
though it is impossible to say whether these bulbs,
with time, had disintegrated into their parts, i.e. bul-
bils/cloves. Some three cloves and fragments survi-
ved in Sector Delta (D), Room 1a in a small funnel-
mouthed jar (Fig. 3), referred to as ‘little amphora’
in the diary. Sector Delta is an agglomeration of four
buildings or a complex (Fig. 4) – private dwellings,
we believe – which are not equally excavated. There-
fore, this Sector still needs further excavation in or-
der to complete its study. However, with the evi-
dence at hand it is believed that the tenants of all
four ‘houses’ of the Delta Complex were most pro-
bably merchants (Michailidou 2008.247; 2013.146).
Storage of luxury items of all sorts seem to have
been stored in Sector Delta (Polychronakou-Sgou-
ritsa 2000.80–81; Michailidou 2008.245) In the
houses a multitude of metal objects was found, such
as the “only known half-talent lead weight” (Mi-
chailidou 2013.idem) found at Akrotiri, along with
a cluster of lead balance weights, a pair of bronze
tongs, two daggers with silver capped rivets, five
vessels consisting of two lavers, found one inside
the other, two jugs and a large hydria. Copper rings
and bound strips were found in room Delta 1a, i.e.
the same room where the garlic cloves were stored.
In that very same room, scale pans No 7352 were
also found. Similarly, in Delta Complex one of the
Linear A tablet fragments which has been found re-
cords 200 textiles. The full list of items, indicating
that the tenants of Sector Delta were traders, is too
long to mention here.
Room D, 1a belongs to the western Delta building
complex (Fig. 5), a ground floor storeroom (Michae-
lidou 2001.321; Mathioulaki, Nikolakopoulou 2018.
66), and possibly an area of the room was used as a
kitchen as there was the presence of a hearth (along
with a number of pottery vessels, and therefore it
seems to have been, at least partly, a cooking area)
(Fig. 6). However, it must also have been a store-
room, as seven lead weights and two scale pans
were located among the finds, namely scale pans
and a whole set of balance scales (Michailidou 2008.
43, 51). Its entrance was from the Pylon, on the Tri-
angular Square, opposite the West House, that is one
of the busiest streets of the settlement. The garlic
finds were in a vessel which was placed near the
western wall of the building and might have had a
conical cup as a lid, as this was found broken with-
in the vessel. It is worth noting too that Rooms 9
and 9.1 of the same building held a high number of
imported wares (Mathioulaki, Nikolakopoulou 2018.
66) from Crete, the other Cycladic islands, the north-
eastern Aegean islands, and the mainland. This in-
dicates further the important position that was su-
rely held by its owners in the trade networks of this
period. The usage of garlic could perhaps indicate
the remnants of a ‘haute/exotic cuisine’ and, hence
added evidence about the high status of the inhabi-
tants. This probably meant an enrichment of flavour
which diverted from the ‘archetypical’ cuisine (Ha-
storf, Bruno 2020) that would have existed at Akro-
tiri, before the introduction of garlic.
Greek mythology
Garlic was scorned by the Gods, due to its smell,
and one did not enter a temple after having eaten
it. Similarly, a Babylonian omen says that a man
who enters ‘the house of his god’ is impure if he eats
garlic, onions, leeks, cress, beef or pork. During the
festival of the Skirophoria, as was mentioned above,
women chewed cloves of garlic, as is shown by Phi-
lichorus of Athens (c. 340–261 BCE), so that their
breath should not smell sweet and that, in this way,
they hoped to repulse their spouses and therefore
abstain from the pleasures of love. Garlic was also
known to have been placed by the ancient Greeks
on the piles of stones at crossroads, as Hecate was
associated with crossroads, and therefore it was pro-
vided as a supper for her (Theophrastus, Charac-
ters, The Superstitious Man). Indeed, Hecate was
said to favour offerings of garlic, a vegetable closely
associated to her cult (https://en.wikipedia.org/wi
ki/Hecate – cite_note-46). She is also sometimes as-
sociated with cypress, a tree symbolic of death, mou-
rning and the underworld, and hence sacred to a
number of chthonic deities.
6 See all the lore connected to garlic in medieval and post-medieval times.
Anaya Sarpaki
438
Fig.1 Akrotiri, Thera: the excavated part of the site.
The archaeology of garlic (Allium sativum)> the find at Akrotiri, Thera, Greece
439
In Lemnos a New Year festival seems to have been
celebrated yearly, in which they extinguished fires
for nine days and made sacrifices to the chthonic
deities. Their women chewed garlic, in order to keep
their men away. Garlic was thus prominent among
the various prohibited foodstuffs and classified un-
der food taboos.
Ethnobotany
A tuncelianum has a mild garlic flavour and odour
and has been called ‘garlic’ and consumed instead
of the usual plan in the region it grows wild in in
Eastern Anatolia (Ipek et al. 2008). In Crete Allium
roseum L. is known as wild garlic, as it has the same
odour and is, sometimes, used in cooking instead of
garlic. Moreover, it is also considered to have the
same therapeutic properties (Skoula et al. 2011.64).
Garlic is said to have several therapeutic properties
in the whole of Greece, and is used as an amulet
against the evil eye as well (Lykiardopoulos 1981).
In Egypt, Blackman (Blackman 1968.209), working
amongst the ‘Fellahin’ (farmers) of Upper Egypt, dis-
covered that rheumatism was cured with garlic. She
goes on to describe the method used, whereby seve-
ral cuts were made in both legs of an affected man
(he had rheumatism in both legs), and garlic juice
was squeezed as well as rubbed on the sores and
into the cuts. This was repeated every day for a fort-
night, and the mane was then completely cured.
There is, definitely, a wealth of ethnobotanical infor-
mation on garlic from all the countries where it is
used, but it is out of the scope of this study.
Garlic as value
Garlic is mentioned in Sumerian and Akkadian texts
referring to plants used by the Babylonians (not Su-
merians) (Stol 1987.57). The most ancient reference
is from an Old Babylonian (c. 2000–1595 BCE) let-
ter where garlic, leek, onion and bulb-leek are men-
tioned. It was originally believed that garlic was not
mentioned in the Mari texts, but now this has view
has been revised (Stol 1987.58) and it is also found
in texts from Fara, Ebla, Pre-Sargonic Lagash, the Ur
III dynasty and Hittite sources (Michailidou 2008.
244, note 230).
For the Ur III period (c. 2050–2000 BCE), it is inte-
resting to compare the wages of workers as Robert
K. Englund (2012) annotated them, so as to get an
inkling of the value system of jobs and products.
The lowest rank of workers have a normal wage of
c. 200 litres of barley per month (c. 6.6 litres/day),
while upper management could have had 5000 lit-
res of grain per month (167 litres/day), with 250 lit-
res (8–9 litres/day) of grain monthly to gardeners,
who one assumes would have been the people who
tended the garlic fields. Two barig of garlic and gar-
lic heads (where one barig is 60 litres), i.e. 120 lit-
res, cost one shekel of silver (c. 8.33g). In this time
period, the minimum wage would have been eight
shekels of silver a year (Englund 2012.443). How-
ever, Englund states that informal markets could
have made a variety of products affordable to work-
ers, and claims that damaged garlic could have been
exchanged with measures of barley at a ratio of 1:
11.1. Yet, of course, there would have been price
fluctuations connected, among other reasons, to con-
flict, collapse of communication, and drought (which
could have triggered prices of barley to rise to unfo-
reseen heights), good harvests, and a high influx of
silver.
Fig. 2 Garlic remains, Akrotiri, Thera: a drawing
of one bulbil; b photograph of the same bulbil; c
two other whole bulbils.
Fig. 3 Photo of the funnel-mouthed jar in which the
garlic remains were found. Akrotiri No. 7562.
a
b
c
Anaya Sarpaki
440
Englund (2012.444) argues that
throughout Mesopotamian history
1 gur of barley (c. 300 litres) was
equivalent to one shekel of silver,
which was a way of standardizing
metrological systems and barley
wages; two gur of salt (c. 600 lit-
res) for one shekel of silver, as
well as one healthy sheep for one
shekel of silver. This provides a
window into the relative values of
products. Whether these prices re-
ferred to those in the Aegean is
hard to tell, but it does provide
some relative indication of value.
When first introduced to Greece/
Cyclades/Akrotiri garlic was pro-
bably a luxury food, as it was an
import, and an open question still
remains as to when it became lo-
cally cultivated. Food and its con-
sumption has been especially in-
vestigated in anthropology, as it
reflects very subtle aspects of hu-
man communication within a so-
ciety. It reflects those who prepare
the food, those who consume it
and share it, and those who are
excluded from its consumption, as
well as those who are allowed to
access it. We therefore need to
deal with the term ‘luxury’ from
an anthropological perspective.
What is a luxury food and is garlic considered a lu-
xury? In these terms, we could assume that a food
that is “desirable or hard to obtain but not essen-
tial to human nutrition” is a luxury (Van der Veen
2003.405), and could thus be seen as an indulgence,
an object of desire which could impress social com-
petition and indicate various forms of conspicuous
consumption/feasting. Such an object needs to be
desired by many but affordable only by a few, and
not concerned with meeting basic human needs in
terms of food, shelter, clothing and leisure. This lu-
xury status would probably refer to the time when
garlic was imported as a high-status food enhancer
and not cultivated locally. However, at Late Bronze
Age Akrotiri we do not know for sure whether the
garlic which was found was imported or cultivated
locally, although we can assume that the latter was
possible. Its name in Linear B was already well en-
grained in the culture (see above), and it was a plant
that could easily become naturalized in the Mediter-
ranean environment. Therefore, we might be seeing
the ‘trickle-down effect’ sometime in the Late Bronze
Age, when garlic, as a luxury, had changed status
from an object desired by many but acquired by a
few, to one available for most people and thus trans-
formed to a commodity, seen as a common food en-
hancer. This could have been a time of a change in
cuisine too, whereby garlic might have enriched a
‘high cuisine’ with the addition of more exotic aro-
matics. Was this the case for Akrotiri? Had garlic just
been introduced – imported – in the Late Bronze Age
Akrotiri, or had it arrived earlier and by the Linear
B was already locally cultivated and naturalized?
This cannot be answered at present, but at least the
Akrotiri garlic find was found in a wealthy ‘mer-
chant’s’ abode, and thus might have been consider-
ed a high-status ingredient. Nevertheless, it is still in-
teresting that on the miniature wall-painting of the
West House, Room 5, north wall (Fig. 7), near the
well, on its left, there is a line of plants which have
Fig.4 Sector Delta (Δ), Akrotiri, Thera: the agglomeration of four
buildings, whose separation is shown here, and symbolized by diffe-
rent raster graphics for each building and the building discussed
here is marked in pink.
The archaeology of garlic (Allium sativum)> the find at Akrotiri, Thera, Greece
441
long elongated leaves, just like Alliaceae, and this
could, perhaps, indicate onion or garlic plants. The
bulbous looking flower on the edge of a stalk is very
characteristic of this family. They grow in a line
which has been identified as depicting/symbolizing
a terrace (Sarpaki 2000.665), near a well, a water
source, which indicates they were bulbous plants
which needed watering, and thus this is a garden
plot. At the time of publication, garlic had not been
identified, therefore there was no tentative identifi-
cation of the plant. In view, though, of the archaeo-
botanical finds and the knowledge that garlic was
present at Akrotiri in the Late Bronze Age (c. 1600
BCE), it would not be far-fetched if we tentatively
suggested it to be garlic/onion.7
Garlic plants grow c. 60cm tall. The spherical flower
cluster is initially enclosed in a pair of papery taper-
ed bracts. These bracts split open when the green-
white or pinkish flowers bloom. They can be sche-
matically depicted as a ball, as is shown
in the plants in the wall painting.
Conclusion on the finds of garlic in
Greece
Based on the above evidence, we can
assert that garlic has been used in Gre-
ece since at least about 1600 BCE, if not
earlier, and was important enough to
have been mentioned in Linear B. The
rarity of this crop in the archaeological
record could be due to several reasons,
one of which may be its low preserva-
tion, i.e. deformation, that occurs due
to its processing (inclusion in food) and
its composition, which includes ethereal
oil. Another reason might have been
due to its rarity of use, storage needs
and/or the way it was processed (i.e.
sliced, mashed). Most probably, even if
not imported, would have been a high-
status crop, pertaining to rather well-
Fig.5 Sector Delta (D), Akrotiri: the western house of the complex, ground and first floor (after Palyvou
2016).
7 Onion skins (Marinatos 1999.43, Pl. 108 b) are believed to have been found in Sector Delta, in a vase. These came from a diffe-
rent building, of the same complex (Fig. 4), in Δ2, room of the lilies, (ground floor) named after the wall painting of lilies that
was found there.
Fig.6 Sector D1a, photo of the northwest corner of the room,
where the pot was found on the hearth (arrow) (Akrotiri ar-
chives, photo 93/474–475).
Anaya Sarpaki
442
to-do individuals and their high cuisine, and thus
rare and never wasted. The rarity of this crop in Pre-
history, as it has only been found at Akrotiri, per-
haps at Palaikastro and, recently, at Tsoungiza, so
far, together with its appearance in Linear B (c.
1200 BCE), might indicate that it was a ‘luxury’ crop,
or at least, a crop somewhat controlled by the ex-
change/trade/bureaucratic networks of the Bronze
Age, even later than c. 1600 BCE, when Linear B
was used. The interest of the palatial bureaucracy
in garlic is indicative of its retaining its high status,
even after several centuries, at first as an import,
but even later when it might have been cultivated
locally. Perhaps the use of wild ‘garlics’, as in Tur-
key, Greece and probably in other cultures of the
Near and Middle East, reflects further evidence of
‘indigenization’ and ‘popularization’ of this new fla-
vour, together with its eventual local cultivation. Its
multiple uses, beyond cuisine, would have rendered
this crop to be highly in demand for medicinal, rit-
ual and preservative reasons, especially for storage
of food, and specifically of animal products (Kumar,
Berwal 2002).8
Fig.7 West House, Room 5, first
floor: a north wall (detail), where
a row of flowering plants are de-
picted, indicating possibly, Allia-
ceae (garlic and/or onion); b
drawing of these plants, which
indicates a tall and erect stem, as
well as a bulbous flower head,
most probably indicating an Al-
liaceae (bottom row).
b
I am most grateful to Professor Christos Doumas, the director of the Akrotiri excavations, who has entrusted
me with the coordination of the environmental program in order to retrieve bio-archaeological remains and
also the study of the archaeobotanical (seed) remains. Dr Tania Devetzi has, very kindly, provided help with
the Akrotiri archive, such as diaries and photos. Mark Nesbitt is graciously thanked for the information on Egyp-
tian garlic in Kew Gardens. Many thanks go to the long array of students – too long to name here – who have
water-floated, and sorted the residues over the years, including Vasilis Gasparakis, and Dimitra Marangaki as
well as Niki Spanou, who has spent so much time sorting flot. Moreover, I would like to extend my gratitude to
Professor Yiannis Tzifopoulos, Dept. of Philology, University of Thessaloniki, who has guided me to the etymo-
logical lexicons, and to my colleague and friend Anni Michailidou for astute comments. Warm thanks are also
extended to Vassilis Petrakis for his help with clarifications of Linear B and recent bibliography. Last, but not
least, my gratitude is extended to my daughter Phaedra, who has helped with Photoshop for most of the figures.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
8 It is known to repel bacteria. For example, fresh cheese gets a prolonged shelf life when garlic is added to it.
a
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