72
4 Transoceanic Trade and Migration (1)
Fig. 4.1 A map showing the clockwise ocean loop made by the Equatorial Current and the Indian
Counter Current used in sailing the Cinnamon Route (based on a map of world ocean currents on
pp. 12–13 of The Time Concise Atlas, Australian edition, 1976. Copyright Times Newspapers Ltd
& John Bartholomew and Son). Reproduced with permission from HarperCollins Publishers
international maritime trading 6,000 years ago by a coastal route to the Middle East
suggests an advance by this date in the Spice Islanders’ maritime skills and cold
resistance. The Egyptian demand for cloves and cinnamon for use in embalming
may date back to the practice of mummification 5,000 years ago. But it is unlikely
that the Cinnamon Route was established as early as this. Sailing the Cinnamon
Route involved sailing a vast open ocean distance exploiting monsoonal winds and
strong currents. Probably the challenge of transposing skills from the protective
warmth of the West Pacific Warm Pool to a colder ocean delayed its establishment.
Instead of voyaging with many possible rest stops, as in Micronesia, the Cinnamon
Route meant meeting the challenge in the Indian Ocean of a long direct ocean crossing with few possible landfalls. As long as spices could be adequately supplied to
Egypt by the long northern coastal route, these challenges would probably have been
postponed. That there was a specific later trigger for establishing the Cinnamon
Route seems likely. What this trigger may have been can only be surmised. We
do know that historians associate the reign of Queen Hatshepsut (1503–1482 BC)
with a sudden increase in the Egyptian demand for spices. It is not unreasonable to
4 Transoceanic Trade and Migration (1)
Fig. 4.1 A map showing the clockwise ocean loop made by the Equatorial Current and the Indian
Counter Current used in sailing the Cinnamon Route (based on a map of world ocean currents on
pp. 12–13 of The Time Concise Atlas, Australian edition, 1976. Copyright Times Newspapers Ltd
& John Bartholomew and Son). Reproduced with permission from HarperCollins Publishers
international maritime trading 6,000 years ago by a coastal route to the Middle East
suggests an advance by this date in the Spice Islanders’ maritime skills and cold
resistance. The Egyptian demand for cloves and cinnamon for use in embalming
may date back to the practice of mummification 5,000 years ago. But it is unlikely
that the Cinnamon Route was established as early as this. Sailing the Cinnamon
Route involved sailing a vast open ocean distance exploiting monsoonal winds and
strong currents. Probably the challenge of transposing skills from the protective
warmth of the West Pacific Warm Pool to a colder ocean delayed its establishment.
Instead of voyaging with many possible rest stops, as in Micronesia, the Cinnamon
Route meant meeting the challenge in the Indian Ocean of a long direct ocean crossing with few possible landfalls. As long as spices could be adequately supplied to
Egypt by the long northern coastal route, these challenges would probably have been
postponed. That there was a specific later trigger for establishing the Cinnamon
Route seems likely. What this trigger may have been can only be surmised. We
do know that historians associate the reign of Queen Hatshepsut (1503–1482 BC)
with a sudden increase in the Egyptian demand for spices. It is not unreasonable to