Archaeologists believe they have found the world's oldest clove in an ancient Sri Lankan port

Clove is a popular Indian spice, prized for its ushna (warming) and kapha-balancing properties, which help to clear congestion, ease coughs and support healthy respiration. It's rich in eugenol, a natural compound with potent antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and expectorant actions, helping to open up the airways and make breathing easier. While Ayurveda often discusses its benefits, do you know the origin of this spice? A Sri Lankan archaeological discovery has an answer, according to a report by The Print. Researchers believe they have found what could be the oldest known clove in the world at the ancient port of Mantai, providing solid evidence that the island was a busy hub of international trade over 2,000 years ago. The clove was not the only spice found. Ancient black pepper was also discovered confirming Mantai as one of the most important trading centres of the Indian Ocean.

The find is the result of excavations at Mantai, an ancient port settlement on the northwestern coast of Sri Lanka, the report says. Radiocarbon dating suggests the settlement was inhabited from around 200 BC to AD 1400 and was a major trading centre during the Anuradhapura Kingdom. Researchers studying preserved plant remains found at the site identified a clove bud dating between AD 900 and 1100. If confirmed, it would be the oldest archaeological clove ever found, surpassing previous finds around the world.

Cloves are the unopened flower buds of the evergreen clove tree (Syzygium aromaticum), indigenous to Indonesia’s Maluku Islands, once called the Spice Islands due to the spices they produced. In ancient times, cloves were prized not only for their unique aroma and flavor, but also for their medicinal qualities. They were employed to sweeten breath, flavor food, make perfumes, and cure sundry ills. Cloves grew only in a limited region of Southeast Asia, so transporting them over great distances made them exceptionally rare and expensive.

The findings underscore Mantai’s significance as a crossroads of international commerce, the report says. According to historical records, Sri Lanka was always popular among the ancient travellers. In AD 77, the Roman scholar Pliny the Elder described the island, then called Taprobane, as a prosperous land rich in pearls, gold, elephants and abundant natural resources. You will be surprised to know that previous excavations have revealed ceramics from the Mediterranean and China, semi-precious stone beads from India and numerous imported artefacts, showing the global connections of the port.

It has been suggested that when archaeologists dug up one clove, they also discovered eight easily identifiable grains of black pepper and a number of other grains thought to be pepper. The oldest pepper remains are dated to about 600 A.D., the report says. Researchers believe the cloves would have travelled nearly 7,000 kilometres by sea from Indonesia's Maluku Islands to Sri Lanka before continuing onward to distant markets across Europe, China, and the Middle East. At the same time, black pepper is thought to have originated in India’s Western Ghats, which is one of the world’s oldest sources of pepper.

The find is a reminder that the famed European spice trade was built on much older Asian trading systems. In the early 16th century Portuguese, Dutch and British colonialists fought furiously for control of Sri Lanka and its profitable spice trade. Black pepper was called “black gold” and cloves remained one of the most expensive spices in international trade. But the finds at Mantai suggest that merchants had been transporting these luxury goods around the Indian Ocean long before colonial powers arrived on the scene.