During the 8th and early 7th centuries, limestone and alabaster dishes were made with a cup-shaped cavity in which either pigments for cosmetics or herbs and flowers for perfume extracts were crushed. Kernos plates with four cupules, of a type still in use in India today, allowed the preparation of as many different compositions. Examples of both types have been found from northern Syria to the southern Levant and illustrate the extent of the Phoenician caravan trade and its connection to the spice route from India via South Arabia. E.G.