Pomegranates in eastern Mediterranean contexts during the Late Bronze Age

Abstract

The recovery of botanical remains from the late fourteenth-century BCE Uluburun shipwreck near Ka., Turkey, provides a unique opportunity to examine the consumable components of an eliteoriented cargo, which included numerous pomegranate seeds, skin fragments and flower parts. Examination of pomegranate-shaped objects and botanical remains permits investigation of the establishment and development of the pomegranate as part of the ‘package’ of elite and luxury items exchanged by Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean cultures.