Vanilla-Spiced Afterlife at Canaanite Megiddo

For centuries, the earliest documented exploitation of domesticated vanilla was known from the Aztecs, who cultivated the flat-leafed species (Vanilla planifolia) in central Mexico around 1300 CE. Remarkably, however, archaeologists excavating at the site of Tel Megiddo in northern Israel have now obtained scientific proof for the use of a vanilla-spiced oil dating back to the mid-second millennium BCE, marking the spice’s earliest known use anywhere in the ancient world.1 Vanilla spice comes from different orchid species within the genus Vanilla that grow in various tropical regions across the globe. Its aromatic compounds are derived primarily from the plant’s fruit […]