So I saw a tiktok about vanilla, and how it’s only native to central and South America (apparently they moved the farming of it in present days to Madagascar). It’s a delicate process that requires a certain species of bee that pollinates in an incredibly short window— hence the price tag. Now, on a hunch I decide to google “what culture has the oldest recorded use of vanilla in the ‘old world’?” And f ck me sideways if the Levant wasn’t using vanilla in the Bronze Age. So, let’s discuss this because with cocaine in the pharaohs toxicology and vanilla in Bronze Age Levant.. I don’t see how anyone could deny transAtlantic or transpacific sea travel from the Americas! Oh!! And I also learned that the Iroquois Confederacy chose purple for there flag because they were known for purple dye from mollusks.. but I couldn’t find a species that produced purple dye OTHER that in the Mediterranean.. anyone know about that?
by Lonely-Conclusion840