Seasame Seeds

Product Description

 Fuller claims trading of sesame between Mesopotamia and the Indian subcontinent occurred by 2000 BC.[20] It is possible that the Indus Valley Civilization exported sesame oil to Mesopotamia, where it was known as ilu in Sumerian and ellu in Akkadian.[21]

Some reports claim sesame was cultivated in Egypt during the Ptolemaic period,[22] while others suggest the New Kingdom.[23][24][25] Egyptians called it sesemt, and it is included in the list of medicinal drugs in the scrolls of the Ebers Papyrus dated to be over 3600 years old. Excavations of King Tutankhamen uncovered baskets of sesame among other grave goods, suggesting that sesame was present in Egypt by 1350 BC.[26] Archeological reports indicate that sesame was grown and pressed to extract oil at least 2750 years ago in the empire of Urartu.[8][17][27] Others believe it may have originated in Ethiopia.[28]

The historic origin of sesame was favored by its ability to grow in areas that do not support the growth of other crops. It is also a robust crop that needs little farming support—it grows in drought conditions, in high heat, with residual moisture in soil after monsoons are gone or even when rains fail or when rains are excessive. It was a crop that could be grown by subsistence farmers at the edge of deserts, where no other crops grow. Sesame has been called a survivor crop.