Editing Saffron (section)

===West Asia===
Saffron was detailed in a 7th-century BC Assyrian botanical reference compiled under [[Ashurbanipal]].{{Sfn|Russo|Dreher|Mathre|2003|p=6}} Documentation of saffron's use over the span of 3,500 years has been uncovered.<ref name=Honan2004>{{cite news |last=Honan |first=W. H. |date=2 March 2004 |title=Researchers Rewrite First Chapter for the History of Medicine |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/02/science/02MEDI.html?ex=1393563600 |access-date=13 September 2011}}</ref> Saffron-based pigments have indeed been found in 50,000-year-old depictions of prehistoric places in northwest Iran.{{Sfn|Willard|2002|p=2}}{{Sfn|Humphries|1998|p=20}} The Sumerians later used wild-growing saffron in their remedies and magical potions.{{Sfn|Willard|2002|p=12}} Saffron was an article of long-distance trade before the [[Minoan palace]] culture's 2nd millennium BC peak. Ancient Persians cultivated Persian saffron (''Crocus sativus'' var. ''haussknechtii'' now called ''[[Crocus haussknechtii]]'' by botanists) in [[Derbent]], [[Isfahan]], and [[Greater Khorasan|Khorasan]] by the 10th century BC. At such sites, saffron threads were woven into textiles,{{Sfn|Willard|2002|p=2}} ritually offered to divinities, and used in dyes, perfumes, medicines, and body washes.{{Sfn|Willard|2002|pp=17–18}} Saffron threads would thus be scattered across beds and mixed into hot teas as a curative for bouts of melancholy. Non-Persians also feared the Persians' usage of saffron as a drugging agent and aphrodisiac.{{Sfn|Willard|2002|p=41}} During his Asian campaigns, [[Alexander the Great]] used Persian saffron in his infusions, rice, and baths as a curative for battle wounds. Alexander's troops imitated the practice from the Persians and brought saffron-bathing to Greece.{{Sfn|Willard|2002|pp=54–55}}