#pine resin

These boxes are much smaller than the first one.

The second one from left to right, top to bottom contains: elderflower, sunflower, powdered pine resin, whole pine resin.

Ancient Mexico is renowned for the production of vivid greenstone mosaics. Early Zapotec and Maya examples from the Classic period were made predominately of jade. Later, turquoise became the material of choice. The finest examples of turquoise mosaics date to the Late Post-Classic period and were probably fashioned by highly skilled Mixtec craftsmen who excelled both in stone and metal work.

A variety of objects were decorated with mosaic, such as masks, shields, staffs, knives, discs, and animal forms.

The mosaic work on these objects usually overlies carved wood, although a number of human skulls decorated in this way are also known. Although the mosaics are usually described as ‘turquoise’ they in fact incorporate a diversity of materials. Various types of shell and many minerals were used in the mosaic work and to fashion inlays. Some elements were gilded and the mosaic was held in place using plant resins (usually pine resin).

Around 25 mosaics are known in Europe and most of these are thought to date to the time immediately before the Spanish conquest of Mexico in 1521.

Bring on better days🔆

Sometimes things just work out, as this is a post I wanted to write. In @nordicsatyr ‘s latest post about offerings for Dionysus, pine resin has been mentionned. Coincidentally, it happens that my latest behind-the-scene “research” (more like luck, but whatever) has actually been about pine resin. 

Let me start off by answering and saying that I agree on the fact that pine resin was very probably also used as incense for Dionysus. It sounds logical, but I won’t go further on that:  I’m not a huge incense consummer, as I live in a small apartment and have a cat, so I’m especially careful about burning anything when she’s around. 

Anyway, what got me to dig into the importance of pine resin is the existance of a type of traditional Greek wine called Retsina. It’s most often a dry white wine which has the particularity of being infused with pine resin. See where I’m getting? It, of course, makes a pretty darn perfect offering for Dionysus. Taste-wise, it is very unique and unsettling at first, because the wine has this resin-like aroma which adds a slight touch of bitterness. 

Like a lot of Greek traditions, retsina takes its roots from Antiquity for a very practical reason: the Greeks used pine resin to seal the amphorae. The earliest record we have is from the roman writer Columella (1st century AD), who explains that they use different types of pine resin depending on whether it’s for sealing or for mixing with wine. Barrels replaced the use of amphorae by the 3rd century AD, which could mean that every greek wine (probably the italian ones too) produced before the 3rd century were either sealed with pine resin or mixed with it. How much aroma did the seal give to the wine, is what I ask myself now.

This explains on a much deeper level the intimate relationship between the pine tree (more especially the Aleppo pine tree) and Dionysus. Yes, the pinecone is on the thyrsus is a phallic symbol, but pine resin has a direct relationship with wine-making. Which association came first?