Frankincense and myrrh: the ancient Somali incense trade, from Egypt to China

In short

Frankincense and myrrh are dried resins tapped from trees. Frankincense comes from Boswellia trees and myrrh from Commiphora trees, both of which grow in the dry hills of the northern Horn of Africa and southern Arabia. In the ancient world they were burned in temples and used in medicine, perfume and burials.

The archaeologist Neville Chittick wrote that aromatic gums were "the chief commodity sought by merchants coming to the Horn of Africa" throughout history (Chittick 1979, International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 8.4, p. 273). This page gathers what each ancient source says, in order.

Egypt: "heaps of myrrh-resin" from Punt, about 1470 BC

Egyptian ships sailed to the Land of Punt for incense from at least the 25th century BC. Many scholars place Punt on the African side of the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, a region that includes northern Somalia (see the Land of Punt).

Queen Hatshepsut's temple at Deir el-Bahari shows her ships being loaded with "heaps of myrrh-resin, with fresh myrrh trees… with ihmut-incense, sonter-incense". Thirty-one live myrrh trees were carried back to be planted for the god Amun (Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, vol. 2, §§265, 272). Around 1150 BC Papyrus Harris I records ships returning with "plentiful myrrh of Punt, laden by ten-thousands, without number" (Breasted, vol. 4, §407).

Greek and Roman writers: the "frankincense-bearing country"

Strabo, about 20 AD. Drawing on the earlier geographer Artemidorus, Strabo describes the coast beyond the Bab el-Mandeb: after the promontory of Pytholaus "one comes to the country that bears frankincense", then to river-lands "that produce frankincense along the rivers", and to "the cinnamon-bearing country", ending at the promontory he calls Notu-ceras, the "Horn of the South" (Strabo, Geography 16.4.14, trans. H. L. Jones, LacusCurtius). Chittick notes that Strabo's knowledge of this coast "ends with the region of Cape Guardafui" (Chittick 1979, p. 273).

The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, 1st century AD. This merchants' guide lists what each Somali port exported (Schoff translation, 1912, pp. 25–28):

• Avalites (near Zeila): "a very little myrrh, but better than the rest."
• Malao (Berbera): "myrrh, a little frankincense (that known as far-side)."
• Mundus (Heis): the same, plus "the incense called mocrotu."
• Mosylon: "a great quantity of cinnamon", fragrant gums, mocrotu, frankincense and myrrh.
• The grove of Acannae, beyond Mosylon: "where alone is produced the far-side frankincense, in great quantity and of the best grade."
• The Market of Spices, Cape Guardafui: cinnamon of five named grades, and frankincense.

The Romans' name for the cape, Aromata, means "spices". W. H. Schoff, the translator, quotes a letter from the naturalist R. E. Drake-Brockman, written at Berbera in January 1910: "The Horn of Africa was known to the Romans as the regio aromatifera on account of the large quantities of myrrh that were exported" (Schoff 1912, notes p. 87).

Schoff read mocrotu as a top grade of frankincense, related to the Arabic mghairot and a Somali word he recorded as mokhr (same source, notes p. 82).

Byzantium and Aksum: "the frankincense country called Barbaria", 6th century

Cosmas, a Greek merchant from Alexandria who sailed the Red Sea, wrote his Christian Topography around 550 AD. He calls the Horn "the frankincense country called Barbaria, lying along the ocean". He describes how the trade worked (Cosmas Indicopleustes, Christian Topography, trans. J. W. McCrindle, 1897, Book II, pp. 51–52):

"The region which produces frankincense is situated at the projecting parts of Ethiopia, and lies inland, but is washed by the ocean on the other side. Hence the inhabitants of Barbaria, being near at hand, go up into the interior and, engaging in traffic with the natives, bring back from them many kinds of spices, frankincense, cassia, calamus, and many other articles of merchandise, which they afterwards send by sea to Adule, to the country of the Homerites, to Further India, and to Persia."

Adule was the port of the kingdom of Aksum, in today's Eritrea. The Homerites were the Himyarites of Yemen. Cosmas also copied a Greek inscription at Adulis in which an earlier king of Aksum boasted of campaigns reaching "on the East to the country of frankincense" (same source, pp. 63–64).

China: "the only one which produces frankincense", 1225

Zhao Rugua (Chau Ju-kua), a Song dynasty customs official in the port of Quanzhou, wrote a guide to foreign lands and goods in 1225, the Zhufan zhi. He described two Somali countries (Hirth and Rockhill, Chau Ju-kua, 1911, pp. 128–131):

• Pi-p'a-lo (the Berbera coast): "The land is also rich in putchuck, liquid storax gum, myrrh, and tortoise shell of extraordinary thickness, for which there is a great demand in other countries."
• Chung-li (the Somali coast and Socotra): "Among the countries of the Ta-shi [the Muslim lands] this is the only one which produces frankincense."

The translators add that "at the present time the best myrrh comes from the Somali country near Harar" (same source, p. 197). See Chinese records of the Somali coast.

What archaeology adds

• Sada Mire, who headed Somaliland's Department of Archaeology, writes that the region's frankincense and myrrh "were linked to temples of many ancient civilizations including Ancient Egypt". She describes ancient burials at Shalcaw on the Red Sea coast, with Sabaean writing, as a key to "the trade in frankincense and myrrh, still a big part of the economy in this area" (Mire 2015, African Archaeological Review 32).
• She notes that the mountains of Shimbiris and Daallo in Sanaag "host many archaeological sites, also being part [of] the ancient incense trade" (same source).
• At Ras Hafun, a valley running into the lagoon leads to an area "where it is said good quality myrrh may be obtained" (Chittick 1979, p. 276).

Related pages

• The Somali ports in the Periplus
• Opone and Ras Hafun
• Before 1300: the ancient Somali lands