History of saffron stores from wild flowers, believing that divine intervention alone enables saffron's medicinal properties. Such evidence suggests that saffron was an article of long-distance trade before Crete's Minoan palace culture reached a peak in the 2nd millennium BC. Saffron was also honoured as a sweet-smelling spice over three millennia ago in the Hebrew Tanakh: In ancient Persia, saffron ("Crocus sativus" 'Hausknechtii') was cultivated at Derbena and Isfahan in the 10th century BC. There, Persian saffron threads have been found interwoven into ancient Persian royal carpets and funeral shrouds. Saffron was used by ancient Persian worshippers as a ritual offering to their
History of saffron the family Iridaceae, native to Greece and Crete. "C. cartwrightianus" is the presumed wild progenitor of the domesticated triploid "Crocus sativus" – the saffron crocus. Saffron is the triploid form of a species found in Eastern Greece, "Crocus cartwrightianus"; it probably appeared first in Crete. An origin in Western or Central Asia, although often suspected, has been disproved by botanical research. Saffron played a significant role in the Greco-Roman pre-classical period bracketed by the 8th century BC and the 3rd century AD. The first known image of saffron in pre-Greek culture is much older and stems from the Bronze Age.