Chios and the Mastichochoria
Although Pistacia lentiscus is native across much of the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands, its most extraordinary human story developed on the Greek island of Chios.
In the island's south, communities became so closely connected with mastic cultivation that their settlements came to be known collectively as the Mastichochoria, the mastic villages. Places including Pyrgi, Mesta, Olympoi and Armolia grew within a landscape shaped economically and socially by the resin.
Mastic influenced more than agriculture. Historical mastic villages developed defensive architecture that helped protect both their inhabitants and a highly valuable crop. Houses could form part of an outer defensive wall, central towers dominated settlements and gates were closed after sunset.
From Chios Across the Mediterranean
When the Genoese took control of Chios in 1346, mastic became central to a highly organised commercial system. The Maona company assumed control over production and trade, turning the resin into one of the island's most important sources of revenue.
From Chios, mastic moved through an extraordinary network of eastern and western markets. Historical records trace the trade through places including Rhodes, Cyprus, Alexandria, Damascus and Constantinople, as well as Italian commercial centres such as Venice, Florence and Genoa.
Ottoman rule began in 1566, but mastic did not lose its importance. The resin remained under monopoly control and the communities responsible for producing it retained special status connected with the crop.
A Living Cultivation Tradition
The traditional production of mastic is remarkably labour intensive and organised around the agricultural year.
In winter, trees are pruned and tended. From around mid-June, the ground beneath each tree is carefully swept, levelled and prepared so fallen resin can be recovered cleanly. From July, small incisions are made in the bark and larger branches, allowing droplets of resin to emerge and solidify.
The hardened tears are then collected, sorted, washed and prepared. Knowledge of when to cut, how deeply to incise and how to handle the harvest has traditionally been passed from older growers to younger generations within mastic-producing families.
In 2014, UNESCO inscribed the know-how of cultivating mastic on Chios on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, recognising a living agricultural tradition built around Pistacia lentiscus and the communities that have maintained it.
