Flora Unveiled

148 i Flora Unveiled

were most likely collecting a cultivated variety of C.  cartwrightianus rather than the
triploid mutant C. sativus:

The origin of the C . sativus clone which exists today is unknown but it is highly proba-

ble that it is the same as that grown in England in the fourteenth century. There is even

the possibility that it was known as long ago as 1600 b.c., for at Knossos in Crete there

exist designs on Minoan frescoes and pottery in which a Crocus with simple long-

exserted [protruding] red stigma branches is depicted. No Crocus exhibits this fea-

ture better than C. sativus although in some forms of C. cartwrightianus the branches

are a little longer than the perianth segments. It is of course impossible to say whether

the Minoans were cultivating the actual clone which still exists today, or a form of

C. cartwrightianus, a species which occurs naturally on Crete. The argument is per-

haps in favour of the latter case since some of the Crocus depicted are white- flowered

and this species has a marked tendency to produce albinos. Whichever case is true, it

is apparent that the Minoans possessed a plant which had exceptional stigma develop-

ment, capable of a far better yield of saffron than the local wild C. cartwrightianus.^25

Mathew’s conclusion that the flowers “had exceptional stigma development” with a “far
better yield of saffron” than the local wild variety of C.  cartwrightianus suggests that the
Minoans had achieved, at the very least, a partial domestication of the wild saffron crocus
by around 1600 bce. Judging from the Thera frescoes, women were primarily responsible
for gathering, hence the selection, of the domesticated variety of crocus, both in Crete and
in the Cyclades. Saffron was a lucrative crop for Crete, both for domestic consumption and
for export. Accordingly, there must have been planted fields of saffron crocus with ordinary
farmers performing the labor, but evidently mundane agriculture was not considered suit-
able for ritual or religious art.

Preparation

Plants or flowers are frequently shown on ring seals emerging from the tops of shrines (see
Figure 6.4 for examples). This suggests that potted plants or cut flowers and leaves were
sometimes used directly to decorate shrines. Flowers were also woven into garlands, as illus-
trated in the miniature painting shown in Figure 6.7. Their ritual use is attested to by their
association with the bones of children and cult vessels in a Late Minoan house near the

Figure 6.7 Fresco of garlands from Knossos (1450 bce).
From Warren, P. (1988), Minoan Religion As Ritual Action. Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology and
Literature. P. Astroms, Gothenburg.