Carrots History - The Early Years

Carrots are said to have been recognised as one of the plants in the garden of the Babylonian King Marduk-apla-iddina, the Biblical Merodach-Baladan ll, who reigned at Babylon in 721–710 and 703 BC. There is no documentary evidence for this carrot reference. 

The clay tablet with cuneiform inscription is located in the British Museum. 67 plants are listed and appear in two columns, subdivided into groups, perhaps to represent plant beds. Only 26 plant names have been identified with certainty including leeks, onion garlic, lettuce, radish, cucumber, gherkin, cardamom, caraway, dill, thyme, oregano, fennel, coriander, cumin and fenugreek. Many remain to be identified. Carrot is currently not amongst those identified, though some of the above identified are umbellifers. The tablet also lists utensils and personnel in the garden. If the carrot was used it would probably have been placed amongst the aromatic herbs along with fennel, suggesting that the root was discounted, using only the pleasantly scented flowers and leaves in cooking or medicine.

The exact lineage of carrots remains difficult to trace as it was often confused by early horticulturalists who used the name "pastinaca" for either carrot or the parsnip, its close relative.

Since most vegetables leave little archaeological trace, it is difficult to construct a complete picture of what was grown in prehistoric times. Many of those recorded in classical literature are likely to have been grown in earlier times, and green and root vegetables native to Europe were gathered long before they were brought into cultivation. Occasional discoveries of seeds show that cabbages were grown in southern England in the Bronze Age and oil-seed rape, turnips, and carrots in the Iron Age; celery, carrots, cabbages, and turnips were also among the plants used by the Neolithic and Bronze Age inhabitants of the Swiss lake villages.

Carrot seeds have been found in prehistoric Swiss lake dwellings in Ronbenhausen giving clear evidence of human consumption. There is however no evidence of cultivation at this stage, more likely they simply collected and used for medicinal purposes. Similar findings appear also in ancient Glastonbury in the UK. Neolithic people savoured the roots of the wild carrot for its sweet, succulent flavour.

5th century bc - Rhaphanidosis is the act of inserting the root of a plant of the genus Raphanus (commonly known as a radish) into the anus. A carrot was also used when radish was not available. It is mentioned by Aristophanes as a punishment for adultery in Classical Athens in the fifth and fourth century BC. (included in a scene in the Clouds where Aristophanes refers to an adulterer being punished by the insertion of a radish into his anus). It is also allegedly a punishment for other sex-related crimes, such as promiscuity and homosexuality. Radishes were larger in those days - ouch!! Nigette Spikes states that when enforced as a capital punishment, tubers so deposited were chosen to be as rough as possible so as to cause death by internal haemorrhaging. Historians have questioned the idea that these comic forms of abuse were carried out in reality, whilst others have argued that the reason that these jokes had such longevity in comedy was precisely because they were a reflection of reality. (References - Spikes, Nigette M. (2014). Dictionary of Torture. Abbott Press. p. 98. ISBN 978-1-45821-791-2;   Cohen, David (1991). "Sexuality, Violence, and the Athenian Law of Hubris". Greece & Rome. 38 (2): 176. doi:10.1017/S001738350002355X..)

One of the first written pieces of evidence come from Theophrastus (371-287bc) - the father of botany. His two surviving botanical works, Enquiry into Plants and On the Causes of Plants, were an important influence on medieval science. Theophrastus states, in the ninth book of his History of Plants, that "carrots grow in Arcadia, but that the best are found in Sparta".  Much of the information on the Greek plants may have come from his own observations, as he is known to have travelled throughout Greece, and to have had a botanical garden of his own; but the works also profit from the reports on plants of Asia brought back from those who followed Alexander the Great:

Theophrastus, also, mentions the carrot. Phaenias, in the fifth book of his work On Plants, writes as follows: "With respect to the qualities of its seed, the so called seps and the seed of the carrot." And in the first book he says:"Umbelliferous types of seeded plants are found in anise, fennel, carrot, bur-parsley (wild cabbage?), hemlock, coriander, and squill, which some call mouse-bane."

(evidently from a list of antidotes; carrot-seed is here mentioned as a cure for the bite of the seps, a kind of lizard-snake. Nic. Ther. 843, Diosc. III.54 (59).

Archaeobotanists have discovered plant DNA in Greek-made pills found in a shipwrecked merchant trading vessel dated to 130BDC. Archaeological researchers have started to analyse the drugs, in the form of clay pills, found on board. Using the GenBank genetic database as their guide, they have found that the pills appear to contain carrot, parsley, radish, alfalfa, chestnut, celery, wild onion, yarrow, oak, and cabbage.It is believed the plants were used by doctors to treat intestinal disorders among the ship's crew. Such remedies are described in ancient Greek texts, but this is the first time the medicines themselves have been discovered. Read more here.

Geneticist Robert Fleischer of the Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park says that many of the ingredients match those described in ancient texts. Yarrow was meant to slow blood coming from a wound, and carrot, as described by Pedanius Dioscorides, a pharmacologist in Rome, was thought to ward off reptiles and aid in conception. Read more here.

Early written references come from the early Romans. Mithridates VI, King of Pontius (120bc-63bc) was in constant fear of poisoning. The king is said to have taken a potion daily, to render his body safe against danger from poison, this contained the seeds of the Cretan carrot.

He concocted one of the most well-known antidotes in antiquity, called mithridatium, possibly with the help of his court physician Crateuas. Experimenting with different formulations and trying them out on condemned prisoners, he compounded various antidotes to produce a single universal one, which he hoped would protect him against any poison. A hundred years after the death of Mithridates, Celsus (see below) recorded the formulation, which comprised thirty-six ingredients, all of which are derived from plants, except for honey to mix them and castor to enhance the aroma. The concoction is estimated to have weighed approximately three pounds and to have lasted for six months, taken daily in the amount the size of an almond.  Celsus said "Against poisoning, a piece the size of an almond is given in wine. In other affections an amount corresponding in size to an Egyptian bean is sufficient. "

Krateuas (Crateuas) 120 B.C. was physician in ordinary to Mithridates VI Eupator, King of Pontus (died 63 B.C.). Krateuas described and illustrated plants. Some fragments of his writings have been recognised in the Anicia Codex of Dioscorides in the Vienna State Library to which reference has been made later in the Carrot Museum - the first Orange carrot illustration.

An examination of the pharmacology of Mithridates' original formulation shows a conscious effort to select plants thought to be useful, many of which have a strong scent and are from the family Apiaceae: Cretan carrot, assafoetida ("gum"), galbanum, sagapenum, opopanax, parsley, anise, hartwort ("saxifrage"). They have subsequently been proved to reduce inflammation.

King Mithridates is said to have taken it daily in an attempt to render his body safe against danger from poison. This worked, and when he tried to poison himself (rather than be slain by his enemies through the sword) his suicide attempt failed, as he had previously, over many years, dosed himself with his "antidote".!!

When King Mithridates was defeated by the Romans they acquired the recipe for Antidotum Mithridates, a universal antidote created by Mithridates himself. Emperor Nero let his physician Andromachus study the antidote. Andromachus changed a few ingredients, most importantly he added snake flesh and increased the amount of opium. The antidote got the name Theriac derived from the Greek which means 'wild or venomous animal', it is also called triacle (modern day treacle). It was originally concocted to cure snake bites, later it became an antidote for all poisons. Theriac had a very complicated formula and failure to follow the recipe with fresh and precisely measured ingredients meant that the concoction did not work.

The use of carrot seeds is recorded in the famous work "De medicina" by Aulus Cornelius Celsus written between 25bc-50ce . A carrot poultice was used at the time - see modern version here.

Carrots were well known to both the Greeks and Romans.

Medieval and particularly Renaissance gardening was heavily influenced by these writings of the ancient Greeks and Romans:
Columella (On Agriculture)
Varro (On Agriculture: Rerum rusticarum)
Cato (On Agriculture: De re rustica)
Palladius (On Husbandry)
Pliny the Elder
Dioscorides Pedanius, of Anazarbos.(De Materia Medica)

Roman Wall painting. Pompeii, House of Giulia Felice, 79 bC National Archaeological Museum, Naples. Depicts radish, carrots, pasnips & turnips

During the first century, the Greeks cultivated a variety of root crops that included leeks, onions, radishes, turnips, and a poorly developed variety of carrots. The unpleasant tasting carrots were rarely eaten but were applied medicinally. Though the Greeks excelled in cultivating many food plants, they never succeeded in developing the carrot into a flavourful vegetable. Even Galen, the 2nd century physician at the court of Marcus Aurelius, stated that the wild carrot is less fit to be eaten than the cultivated variety. They cultivated carrots in their kitchen gardens. These varieties are thought to have been 'forked' with white roots, not unlike the roots of today's wild carrot.

The Romans often ate carrots raw, dressed in oil, salt and vinegar or they cooked them with a sauce made from cumin, salt, old wine and oil. The Romans invading Britain in the second century AD brought leeks, onions, garden carrots, garlic, fennel, mint, thyme, parsley and coriander to name but a few. The Greeks called the carrot "Philtron" and used it as a love medicine to make men more ardent and women more yielding. The Carrot is mentioned by Greek and Latin writers under various names however it was not always distinguished from the Parsnip and Skirret, which are closely allied to it. The name Pastinace was used for both at the time of Pliny  the Elder and is based on the verb pastinare - to dig up.  Galen in the 2nd century attempted to distinguish the two by giving the wild carrot the name Daucus Pastinaca.

The Greeks had three words each of which could be applied to the properties of the carrot: "Sisaron", first occurring in the writings of Epicharmus, a comic poet (500 B.C.); "Staphylinos", used by Hippocrates (430 B.C.) and "Elaphoboscum", used by Dioscorides (first century AD).

Hippocrates (460-359 BC) The physician and scholar is well known and revered as the father of modern medicine and formalised many herbal cures. Less known is the stress he placed on diet in maintaining health. In medical science, people basically thought the mind and the body was an inseparable thing and the moral view of disease was that diseases were a punishment for a sin. On the other hand Hippocrates saw that diseases occur by natural causes. Having lived just shy of a century at a time when life expectancies were much less, he clearly understood the importance of a healthy diet.

The assertion of Hippocrates, a doctor from Cos Island in Greece and that of his followers remains and his complete works have commanded universal admiration for a long time as the highest scriptures in the field of medical science. Even today the sublime spirit of Hippocrates serves as pattern for others, so every person seeking for the occupation of doctor is bound to swear the Hypocratical oath at least once.

Hippocrates said "Let food be your medicine and medicine your food". In the following description of cooking methods, his primary concern is to counteract the potentially harmful effects of strongly flavoured foods with the ultimate goal of easing their digestion and passage through the body. He also reveals some of the basic preferences of ancient Greek cuisine.

He also said "The powers of foods severally ought to be diminished or increased in the following way...Take away their power from strong foods by boiling and cooling many times; remove moisture from moist things by grilling and roasting them; soak and moisten dry things, soak and boil salt things, bitter and sharp things mix with sweet, and astringent things mix with oily."  For example, foods like cabbage, carrots and turnips were boiled several times, fish or lamb would have been grilled, and an herb like sorrel would have been dressed with oil.

Socrates - In 399 B.C., Socrates was found guilty of heresy and corrupting the minds of Athenian youth. For this, he was sentenced to death by drinking poison hemlock. The alkaloids found within poison hemlock cause paralysis of several organs, including the respiratory system, usually within 2 or 3 hours. Eating only a tiny bit of the toxins found in poison hemlock can cause death.

Pedianos Dioskourides, also known as Pedanius Dioscorides was a Greek physician (c. 20-70 CE) was a Cilician Greek and catalogued over 600 medicinal plant species during his first century travels as a roman army doctor and who accurately describes the modern carrot. (Cilicia is a geo-cultural region in southern Anatolia (Turkey), extending inland from the northeastern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea.)  The Greek herbal of Pedanios Dioskurides, latinized as Pedanius Dioscorides (20–70 CE), is entitled Peri Ylis Ialikis (PYI) and latinized as De Materia Medica, On Medical Matters, was written about the year 65. It was destined to be one of the most famous books on pharmacology and medicine but is also rich in horticulture. This non-illustrated work contained descriptions of about 600 plants, 35 animal products, and 90 minerals emphasizing their medicinal uses. A separate Carrot Museum page has a lot more detail of the Greek Herbal Materia Medica associated with Dioscorides here.

The third book of Dioscorides the Greek – Roots -  sets out an account of roots, juices, herbs, and seeds — suitable both for common use and for medications. Read more on the next page including some translations of his work and illustrations of the Orange Carrot. Here  Dioscorides probably wrote his great herbal in about 64CE (according to Pritzel 77CE). These medicinal and alimentary plants number about a hundred more than all those (medicinal or not) known to the great botanist Theophrastus, and described in his fine botanical work, the Enquiry into Plants, some two centuries before.

He was from Anazarbus, a small town near Tarsus in what is now south-central Turkey. As a surgeon and physician with the Roman army of Emperor Nero, Dioscorides travelled through Italy, Gaul, Spain, and North Africa, recording the existence and medicinal value of hundreds of plants. He compiled an extensive listing of medicinal herbs and their virtues in about 70 A.D. Originally written in Greek, Dioscorides' herbal was later translated into Latin as De Materia Medica.

Dioscorides knew three kinds of  Daucus, the third of which could be probably identified with the wild carrot, having “coriander leaves, white flowers, top and seeds similar to dill and terminal umbels like parsnip.”

He recorded many plants previously unknown to Greek and Roman physicians, and made an effort to describe not only their qualities and remedial effects, but also something of their botany and living morphology including roots, foliage, and sometimes flowers. Although not as naive as many other herbal writers, he showed little scientific interest concentrating rather on the practical uses of plants and sometimes giving only brief descriptions, perhaps from other primary sources. In all he described some one thousand remedies using approximately six hundred plants and plant products.

His work remained the standard reference and authority on medicinal plants for over 1500 years.  Dioscorides said that the Greeks used carrot leaves against cancerous tumours. He may have learned his medicine by practical experience while in the legions and he most certainly relied on an earlier work by the physician Crateuas. His work describes some 600 plants and their possible medical use.  Pedanius Dioscorides described the carrot as a panacea for a number of problems. "They say that reptiles do not harm people who have taken it in advance; it also aids conception," he wrote around 60 AD.

Dioscorides wrote "Ye root ye thickness of a finger, a span long, sweet-smelling, edible being sodden [boiled]. Of this ye seed being drank...and it is good for ye [painful discharge of urine] in potions, and for ye bitings and strokes of venomous beasts; they say also, that they which take it before hand shall take no wrong of wilde beasts. It co-operates also to conception, and it also being [diuretic], both provoketh [poison], and being applied; but the leaves being beaten small with honey, and laid on, doth cleanse rapidly spreading destructive ulceration of soft tissues." He recommended the seeds of Wild Carrot for the relief of urinary retention, to stimulate menstruation and to "wake up the genital virtue."  Read more on the next page including some translations of his work and illustrations of the Orange Carrot. Here  (Mitch, 1998) Read more on the next page including some translations of his work and illustrations of the Orange Carrot. Here

Columella (1st century AD) briefly mentions the carrot. He talks of the wild field parsnip and a cultivated variety which bears the name and which the Greeks called "staphylinos". Carrot (pastinaca) a native plant improved by cultivation  - “agrestis pastinaca et eiusdem nominis edomita quam Gracci staphylinos oucant (later it was called carota and pastinaca transferred to the parsnip) Ref:Columella DA 11.3.35 - Food in the Ancient World from A to Z By Andrew Dalby)

He also mentions that the unopened flowers were collected and stored as herbs. Columella, Lucius Junius Moderatus - (b. 1st century AD, Gades, Spain) was a Roman soldier and farmer who wrote a twelve volume treatise on all aspects of Roman farming and extensively on agriculture and kindred subjects in the hope of arousing a love for farming and a simple life. He became in early life a tribune of the legion stationed in Syria, but neither an army career nor the law attracted him, and he took up farming in Italy.

Tiberius Claudius Nero (42BC-37AD), second Emperor of Rome, was, according to Pliny the Elder,  so much in love with the carrot root that he ordered it to be brought yearly from the Castle of Geluba standing on the river Rhine in Germany. Pliny the Elder called him tristissimus hominum, "the gloomiest of men".

Apicius (1st century) The oldest collection of recipes to survive from antiquity, De Re Coquinaria ("The Art of Cooking") is attributed to Marcus Gavius Apicius, the famed epicure who flourished during the reign of Tiberius early in the first century AD. More about Apicius here

Stories of his legendary wealth and excesses abounded and he passed in to history as  a kind of croesus of the kitchen. Apicius is primarily remembered as a deranged, sadistic and extravagant tyrant. The historian Aelius Lampridius depicts him feasting on flamingo's' brains, the heads of parrots, sow's udder and vegetables seasoned with precious jewels. #His work "De Re Coquinaria" (on cookery) is the most important cooking treatise in Latin. It is divided into 11 Chapters and reveals the evolution of taste in terms of food and lifestyle of the Roman upper class up to the Fall of the Roman Empire. This work is reputedly the oldest cookbook in the w