Import of an Aegean Food Plant to a Middle Bronze IIA Coastal Site in Israel

The discovery of L. clymenum at the Middle Bronze IIA settlement at Tel Nami, Israel is reported. Archaeobotanical evidence is presented in order to show the Aegean origin and demonstrate the peculiarities of this exotic food crop. The archaeological context of the discovery and its implications indicate that maritime contacts existed between the Aegean and the southern Levant during the first quarter of the second millennium B.C.