Frankincense tree (Boswellia sacra)

Frankincense trees (Boswellia sacra Flück.) yield the frankincense resin that was traded and used in the ancient world.

Boswellia sacra tree distribution ranges from the region of Ḥaḍramawt (Yemen) in the west to the Dhofar province (Sultanate of Oman) in the east, and in the north of Somalia (Fig. 1). The trees are tapped with a knife called mangeb or manqeb. The resin runs off and dries on the tree before collection. Traditionally, the trees were tapped twice a year, in winter and in summer, but today they are tapped all year round.

Lbny could be the Ancient South Arabian word for frankincense. It comes from the Semitic root lbn meaning “white” which gave lubān (frankincense) in Arabic. Lbny is attested on several incense burners found in Yemen and in Ethiopia (CSAI I, 1095, UAM 214). Frankincense was used during religious rituals, in funerary and domestic contexts. These uses are attested by epigraphic sources, by iconographic depictions on stelae and by archaeological finds.

Frankincense was used in religious cults and during funerary ceremonies in Arabia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Levant, Ancient Greece, and finally Rome. In Egypt, frankincense was used as early as the 2nd millennium BCE, as shown by the expedition led by Queen Hatshepsut to the “Land of Punt” (15th century BCE) in order to bring back frankincense and myrrh.

By the c. 9th or 8th centuries BCE, frankincense resin from Boswellia sacra in South Arabia and in the Horn of Africa progressively replaced the local resins used in the ancient Mediterranean. As a consequence, trade between South Arabia, Assyria, the Near East, and the Mediterranean world increased at that time. This coincides with the domestication of the camel to carry goods. The introduction of frankincense to the Greek world can be traced back as far as the 7th century BCE as the poetess Sappho uses the word ‘libanos’ (D 55) which is the distortion of ‘lbny’.

Although South Arabian textual sources for frankincense and frankincense trees are scarce, the Greek and Latin texts were more eloquent. In the 5th century BC, Herodotus states that frankincense (libanôtos) can only be found in Eudaemon Arabia and he describes the frankincense harvest (Histories, III, 107). Descriptions by later authors such as Theophrastus (c. 371–287 BCE, Enquiry of Plants, IX, 4) and Diodorus Siculus (d. c. 30 BCE, Bibliotheca Historica, III, 45-46) are similar. In 25 BCE, Strabo (c. 64 BCE-24 CE) collected the account of Ællius Gallus’s expedition to South Arabia. Strabo thus gathered first-hand information on the region and his work provides detailed indications on the distribution of incense trees (Geog. XVI, 4). Pliny the Elder (c. 23/24-79 CE), also described the trees and the frankincense harvest (NH XII, 31-32), and the organization of trade (NH XII, 32). In the 1st century CE, the Periplus Maris Erythraei indicates that frankincense trees grow in the regions of Shabwa (Hadramawt) and Sachalites, (Dhofar). These toponyms are also found in Claudius Ptolemy’s Geography (c. 100-170 CE — Geog. I, 17 and 6th map of Asia).

Frankincense trade declined for a while when the Roman Empire adopted Christianity before being adopted in the Christian liturgy from the 5th century CE onwards.

Sterenn Le Maguer-Gillon

References and suggested readings

• Avanzini, A. 1998. Le commerce des aromates et les États de l’Arabie méridionale pré-islamique, in R. Gyselen (ed.) Parfums d’Orient (Res Orientales vol. XI): 85–92. Bures-sur-Yvette.
• Groom, N. 1981. Frankincense and myrrh. A Study of the Arabian Incense Trade. London: Longman.
• Jung, M. 2003. Gli aromi nell’epigrafia sudarabica, in Aromatica. Essenze, profumi e spezie tra Oriente e Occidente: 64–66. Rome: Museo Nazionale d’Arte Orientale, Elio de Rosa Editore.
• Müller, W.W. 1976. Notes on the use of Frankincense in South Arabia. PSAS 6: 124–136.
• Müller, W.W. 1997. Namen von Aromata im antiken Südarabien, in A. Avanzini (ed.) Profumi d’Arabia: 193–210. Rome: "L’Erma" di Bretschneider.
• Peacock, D. & D. Williams (eds) 2006. Food for the Gods: New Light on the Ancient Incense Trade. Oxford: Oxbow Books.