Although frankincense resin was very important in tombs of New Kingdom and Roman times, only one find has been confirmed from the Middle Kingdom. It is, therefore, interesting to note Lucas’s analysis of some yellow-brown balls as having characteristics of frankincense. When fresh the resin is whitish. It was obtained from several species of Boswellia tree. B sacra (including B. carteri) grows in the Dhofar region of Oman in southern Arabia, and in Somalia in the Horn of Africa, on the dry but misty mountains there. Both locations would have been reached by expeditions down the Red Sea, such as that commemorated in Queen Hatshepsut’s (c. 1470 BC) mortuary temple at Thebes. Another species of frankincense tree, B. papyrifera, has a wider distribution, in the dry mountains of Ethiopia, and it is possible that its resin could have been obtained by land or
Leaves, flowers and fruit of the Egyptian plum tree Balanites aegyptiaca.
Flowering, leafy shoot of the frankincense tree Boswellia sacra.
Down the River Nile. This is the resin still used in Coptic churches.
Cuts on the trunk, where the thin bark peels off like paper, produce tears of resin. Both species have compound, pinnate leaves, but the flowers of B. sacra are white, while those of B. papyrifera are pink and in a much laxer inflorescence. The fruits of Boswellia are dry capsules (unlike the berries of Commiphora species mentioned below).
Frankincense resin was burnt in religious rites in Egypt, as elsewhere, including the Israelite tabernacle (Leviticus 16:12), and it was brought to the infant Jesus (Matthew 2:11).
World History
