Saffron played a significant role in the Greco-Roman pre-classical period bracketed by the 8th century BC and the 3rd century AD . The first known image of saffron in pre-Greek culture is much older and stems from the Bronze Age . A saffron harvest is shown in the Knossos palace frescoes of Minoan Crete , which depict the flowers being picked by young girls and monkeys . One of these fresco sites is located in the " Xeste 3 " building at Akrotiri , on the Aegean island of Santorini — the ancient Greeks knew it as " Thera " . These frescoes likely date from the 16th or 17th century BC but may have been produced anywhere between 3000 and 1100 BC . They portray a Minoan goddess supervising the plucking of flowers and the gleaning of stigmas for use in the manufacture of what is possibly a therapeutic drug . A fresco from the same site also depicts a woman using saffron to treat her bleeding foot . These " Theran " frescoes are the first botanically accurate visual representations of saffron 's use as an herbal remedy . This saffron-growing Minoan settlement was ultimately destroyed by a powerful earthquake and subsequent volcanic eruption sometime between 1645 and 1500 BC . The volcanic ash from the destruction entombed and helped preserve these key herbal frescoes
volcanic eruption
Minoan eruption
History of saffron