The oldest vanilla pod in Europe

It’s still a bit of a mystery how this vanilla pod got to Central Europe as most of the trade routes at the time were controlled by the Spanish and Portuguese but it clearly shows trading power from the wealthy in Prague at the time.
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Slight correction: it’s ‘vanillic’ acid, not ‘vanillin’, I misspoke!
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Sources:
- Irmišová et al. (2025) ‘The first discovery of a vanilla pod in Europe: A multidisciplinary record from the early modern period of the Prague Castle’, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports
- Archaeology Magazine
- Wikimedia Commons (image)
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Видео The oldest vanilla pod in Europe канала The Sapphic Archaeologist