Bronze and oil: A possible link between the introduction of tin and Lallemantia to northern Greece

Soultana-Maria Valamoti & Glynis Jones Annual of the British School at Athens 105 (2010): 83-96.

Abstract

Lallemantia, an exotic oil plant, recently identified at Bronze Age sites in the Macedonia region of northern Greece, has a natural distribution lying outside Europe, in regions ranging from Iran to Anatolia, Jordan, Palestine, and Israel. The possible routes through which Lallemantia arrived in northern Greece are considered in relation to evidence for Bronze Age trade in metals, in particular tin. The overlap of Bronze Age tin sources proposed in the archaeological literature with the natural distribution of Lallemantia, in regions such as Iran and Afghanistan, suggest that the importation of this plant to northern Greece may have been facilitated by the tin trade, and that both, at least initially, may have represented luxuries rather than mere commodities.