[Sca-cooks] Vanilla in the old and new world?

[Terry Decker]

That the vanillin found at the dig was from vanilla beans is debatable, but 
is not as baseless an overstatement as you appear to think it is.  The 
second most likely source (my opinion) would be natural extraction from 
lignin which produces a relative minute amount of vanillin as compared to 
industrial extraction processes.  Other plants do produce vanillin, but one 
needs to consider the available processing options rather than assuming the 
quantities would match those of modern industry.

Vanilla orchids would not be found, simply because Megiddo is well outside 
their natural range and they don't travel well.  Why destroy a bearing plant 
when seed pods or extracted vanilla would be easier to ship and more 
profitable?

The extract for Linares paper is a little more precise and concise than the 
Smithsonian article.  The Southeast Asian source for the vanilla was an 
opinion by another archeologist not involved in the study.

Vanessa Linares (Tel Aviv University), “Long Distance Trade: Vanillin as a 
Mortuary Offering in Middle Bronze Age Megiddo”

Organic residue analysis was conducted on four small containers (juglets) 
placed as offerings in an elite MB III (ca. 1650–1550 B.C.E.) masonry tomb 
uncovered at Tel Megiddo, Israel. Compounds vanillin and 
4-hydroxybenzaldehyde were identified in three out of the four juglets 
examined. These compounds are the major compounds found in natural vanilla 
extract. Until now it has been commonly accepted that vanilla was 
domesticated in the New World and subsequently spread to other parts of the 
globe. Once all possibilities of contamination were ruled out, a 
post-organic residue analysis investigation of various species within the 
plant kingdom from which these principle compounds could have been exploited 
was conducted.

The source of vanillin from the juglets examined stem from the vanilla 
orchid. This is based on the profuse quantity of vanillin found in the 
juglets that could have only derived from the abundant amount of vanillin 
yield from the vanilla orchid pods. This conjecture is supported by the 
presence of compound 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde that is also a major component of 
natural vanilla extract. After a close study of vanilla orchid plants, three 
different species were identified as possible sources for vanilla 
exploitation in antiquity: V. polylepsis Summerh (central east Africa), V. 
albidia Blume (India), and V. abundiflora J.J. Sm. (southeast Asia). These 
results shed new light on the first known exploitation of vanilla, local 
uses, significance in mortuary practices, and possible long-distance trade 
networks in the ancient Near East during the second millennium B.C.E.

Bear


Be aware that all that was found were traces of vanillin and other
chemicals, not actual plants. Other plants produce these same chemicals so
vanilla orchids are not found and for the scientists to claim they were was
a gross overstatement of their findings.

Richenda

On Wed, Nov 21, 2018 at 7:50 PM Terry Decker <t.d.decker at att.net> wrote:

> Stefan, until artificial pollination of vanilla orchids began in the 19th
> Century, vanilla orchids were limited to areas of the tropics and
> subtropics
> with enough of a limited set of insect pollinators.  There is roughly a 12
> hour window in which the flower can be pollinated and it will not
> germinate
> without the presence of certain fungi.  There are a number of plant
> diseases
> which can kill off the orchids.  In other words, there are limited areas
> which can produce the quantity of plants naturally to support a vanilla
> bean
> trade.
>
> Currently, world vanilla production is down while demand is increasing.
> Vanilla extract was $70 a gallon in 2015.  It's around $500 a gallon
> today.
> And that is with modern artificial propagation and  cultivation
> techniques.
> Whoever produced the vanilla for Megiddo might not have been cultivating
> vanilla orchids, just collecting fruit from wild plants.  That would have
> made for a very irregular supply.  Since the Megiddo find is the only use
> of
> vanilla that we know of in the Old World prior to the 16th Century, it's
> likely the supply was limited and irregular and unbelievably expensive.
>
> Southeast Asian or Indian vanilla likely came through the spice market in
> Kerala, India (existing from about 3000 BCE) then shipped to Eilat and
> from
> there into the Bronze Age Levant.  African vanilla would likely have come
> from expeditions from Punt (roughly Eritrea) into the area around
> Madagascar, then traded into Egypt and from there to the Levant.
>
> Bear
>
>
> Interesting. It looks like vanila was used in both the old and the new
> world. What this brings up is, why did it die out in the old world?
>
>
> https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/vanilla-was-first-used-2500-years-earlier-and-half-world-where-we-thought-180970862/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20181121-daily-responsive&spMailingID=37474810&spUserID=NzM3Mzg2ODQ5OTU5S0&spJobID=1402296043&spReportId=MTQwMjI5NjA0MwS2
>
> I hope this long link comes through useable.
> --------
> THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
>    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          StefanliRous at gmail.com
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/marksharris
> **** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org **
>
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