A seasonal feast

Young spring lamb and Mediterranean herbs keep old traditions alive at Easter, writes cookbook author Katerina Stai.

The season of spring lamb has always been an occasion for festival feasts in ancient cultures. In Greece, the tradition is manifest at Easter - and whether people celebrate the holiday this weekend or on the Greek date, which this year is April 12, they are consuming meat seasoned with savory herbs that were traded by merchants of the ancient sea power as long ago as the 5th century.

That hasn't always been conventional wisdom. Ancient shipwrecks loaded with thousands of vase-shaped amphorae had long convinced archaeologists that Greek trade revolved around wine. But researchers have recently been able to test the contents of jars recovered from the bottom of the Mediterranean. The residues' DNA proved to be olive, juniper, pine, legumes, ginger, walnut and herbs of the Lamiaceae family: mint, rosemary, thyme, oregano and sage.