ABSTRACT
Evidence from Aegean Bronze Age art, Linear B documents, classical authors (Theophrastus, 371-287 BC, Pliny, 23-79 AD and Dioscorides, 1st century AD) and taxo-cytological studies was brought together in an attempt to outline the process of saffron domestication. In this study, Negbi and Negbi (in press) argued that saffron was first harvested from the wild Crocus cartwrightianus, a mutant of which-Crocus sativus, distinguished by its elongated stigmas-was observed, selected and domesticated on Crete during the Late Bronze Age. Saffron was later established as a minor but expensive crop in the Old World from India to Britain (Warburg 1957). Nonetheless, the detailed history of saffron’s establishment in various regions of the Old World awaits a categorical study. During the past four decades, saffron’s glorious past has been praised and its present diffculties lamented (Amigues 1988, Anon. Undated, Basker and Negbi 1983, Coppock 1984, Di Francesco 1990, Fois Sussarello 1990, Greenberg and Lambert Ortiz 1983, Ingram 1969, Jossen and Stork 1983, Mir 1992, Negbi and Negbi, in press, Raines Ward 1988, Rees 1988, Skrubis 1990, Szita 1987, Tammaro 1990, Tammaro and Di Francesco 1978, Tuveri 1990).
