The requirements of human nutrition are today sufficiently well-understood to enable us to sketch an outline of what it is the body needs and how those needs could have been met in ancient Mesopotamia. Each major category of foodstuff available in Mesopotamia, be it cereals, legumes, vegetables, fruits, meat, fish, milk products or oils, provides more complement of essential amino acids, fatty acids, vitamins and minerals needed by the body. Our appreciation of an individual´s intake is badly skewed by the nature of our sources. Lexical lists may give us a plethora of names of different foodstuffs theoretically grown, prepared and consumed at Mesopotamia, but we cannot be certain where actual consumption ends and the lexicographer´s delight in words begins. Ration texts reveal only a very limited range of foodstuffs, suggesting that, unless the ration-receiving population was perpetually in a state of malnutrition, they must have been in receipt of other foodstuffs, no doubt from family plots, the produce from which never entered the central book-keeping machinery. The principal foodstuffs can, at any rate, be identified even if we are uncertain in all instances how those foods entered the diet of the inhabitants. We begin with the cereals.
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1. BARLEY
(Skipping discussion on several types of barley and the evolution of this cereal)
Judging by the cuneiform evidence, barley was without doubt th emost important cereal crop in Southern Mesopotamia, so much so that the word for barley came to be used generally for all grain, comparable to corn in British English. The marked preference for barley over wheat in the south has generally been taken as a reflectionof its greater salt tolerance and higher yields, and indeed a perceived increase in the ratio of barley to wheat has been interpreted as a sign of progressive salinization in Southern Mesopotamia.
Powell, however, showed that the Mesopotamian preference for barley over wheat may be due to factors other than salinity tolerance. The same preference is historically attested in the rain-fed agriculture of Attica, for instance, where barley accounted for 90,3 percent of the total cereal production in 329-8 BCE. The evidence from Greece seems to suggest that barley yield per hectare was higher than that of weaht, and indeed nowadays the same takes places especially for poor land wiht limited water supply. In addition, barley generally ripens two or three weeks earlier than wheat, enabling it to avoid rst.
2. WHEAT
Less cultivated than barley for the reasons mentioned above, wheat was scarcely cultivated in southern Mesopotamia, and we have an example from Girsu, where the area for wheat corresponded to 1,7 per cent of the total dedicated to agriculture.
Tomorrow, einkorn and legumes
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Re: Agriculture and Diet
Apologies for the very summarized notes on wheat. *red faced Lishtar* Professor Potts goes in considerable more length and detail on every item of ancient Mesopotamian diet, but I guess errrr... we may not be that interested here in the evolution of the several varieties of crops as far as archaeology can go back in time!!! hm...
3. EINKORN
Einkorn both wild and domesticated were found in Mesopotamia, and according to findings, known since around 6,700 BCE. Wild einkorn was probably locally available and therefore exploitable, whereas domesticated einkorn was generally confined to the northern, dry-farming areas of Mesopotamia, once it was not thought to be very well adapted for the irrigated cultivated areas of the South. Its advantage over free-threshing wheats is that einkorn is very drought resistant, and does well in poor soils, providing a yield where other species of wheat will not grow at all.
4. LEGUMES
Legumes cultivated in southern Mesopotamia included lentil, garden pea, chickpea, and broad bean, all of which may be eaten as green vegetables, raw or cooked, or used as dry seeds. Other legumes such as bitter and common vetch and, from Neo-Assyrian times onward, alfalfa were cultivated as animal fodder. Legumes are important as nitrogen-fixing plants which enrich the soil, thereby ensuring future yields, and as such represent an essential element in crop rotation schemes. In addition, they have been used successfully in land reclamation projects on heavily salinized land. King Gudea, circa 2,100 BCE at Lagash mentioned "wheat, emmer and various pulses/legumes", showing that legume cultivation was of some general importance in Ancient Mesopotamian agriculture.
The lentil is attested amongst the earliest cultivars in Western Asia. In greater Mesopotamia, it is attested in the ceramic Neolithic period. The lentil is high in protein and able to withstand a fair amount of heat and drought. Common field peas are also attested since pre-historic times.
Next, we go to vegetables... which seem to be more varied and ... errr..... more to our 21st century taste at least!
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There is abundant information on garlic, leeks, onions and lettuce in cuneiform sources. An ancient tablet from the time of King Shalmaneser of Assyria also quotes beet, cucumber and radish. Onions, leeks and garlic were grown in garden plots, intercropped amongst date palms. In addition to cucumber, various types of melon are also attested.
6. SPICES
Words such as herb, spice or condiment are scarcely able to convey the range of culinary, medicinal and magical used to which a wide variety of plants, seeds, roots, petals, resin, twig or bar, were put in their fresh, dried, coarse ground and pulverized forms in ancient Mesopotamia.
I will stop here because the use of herbs and spices in cooking is well documented by the so-called culinary tablets in the Yale collection, which is the book Daryl is going to introduce us to. It seems that Professor Bottéro of the Louvre is also a great chef! Daryl is thus in excellent company!
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Mesopotamians seemed to appreciate all sorts of herbs and spices, and the complexity of the subject can be seen in the large number of Sumerian and Akkadian terms for such specialties. Let´s see some spices and how they were used in everyday cuisine:
a) coriander was added to rice, vegetable and meat dishes;
b) cress and cress seed;
c) black cumin - added to rice;
d) fennel - was "chewed or drunk with water against stomach ache".
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While all plants contain oil, some contain greater amounts of it than toehrs, usually stored in the roots or seeds. The uses of oil plants are many, ranging from an edible additive on food (e.g. in salad) to an important cooking ingredient, a component of paints and varnishes; a lubricant, a softening agent for leather, a medicine or component thereof, a constituent of perfume or soap, a preservative and anti-fouling agent, a substance which be be burnt to provide light.
The best represented of all oil plants in Mesopotamia is flax. Sesame was another important plant. Mustar or raddish seeds were also known and used to make oil for cooking.
Tomorrow, we move on beyond dates, i.e. we will see different kinds of fruits.
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The final category of vegetal food to be considered is fruit. This includes first and foremost dates, as well as figs, grapes, pomegranates, apples and additionally, pear, quince and plums in Assyria.
Remember that in the 11th tablet of the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, our hero turns to Urshanabi, the boatman, and tells him "Go up the wall of Uruk... and walk around". Surveying the ancient city in the early 3rd millennium, Gilgamesh boasts that 1 sar is city, 1 sar gardens, 1 sar claypits, as well as the open ground of Ishtar´s temple. "Three square miles comprise Uruk (Dalley, 1989:51).
And how was the Mesopotamian garden?
Gardens were organized in storeys. The upper storey comprised date palms, the tallest trees in the garden which provided shade for everything growing beneath them; the middle storeys comprised of several smaller trees, and the lowest storey comprised of cultivated plots of cereal, vegetables, legumes or a combination of three.
The trunk of date palms was the basic wood for furniture, door frames, or roof-beams. Shade provided by date palms was fundamental for the cultivation of most legumes and vegetables, as well as smaller fruit trees.
Fruits were also dried and packed for storage in reed baskets, ceramic jars or wooden boxes, and were important offerings in rituals to the gods and at the king´s table.
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Re: Agriculture and Diet
10. MEAT AND MILK PRODUCTS
The basic triad of sheep, goat and cattle predominated in Southern Mesopotamia. In addition, the pig often thought to be less important, was actively herded from at least the Late Uruk to the Ur III period. Wild boar, moreover, was hunted in the marshes, as numerous pictures attest.
Without entering into all of the problems surrounding livestock in ancient Mesopotamia, the question that must be asked is to what extent meat and milk products figured in the ancient inhabitants´ diet?
Not very much, for in essence none of these animals were normally consumed as part of the regular diet, because of the fact that their secondary products and labour were much too valuable for the animal itself to be slaughtered. Cattle were employed consistently as draught animals for ploughing and were therefore well tended. Indeed, dairy productivity was poor and although recorded, was not of paramount importance.
Sheep and goat were kept principally for their fleece and hair they provided for the textile industry, and only secondarily for their skins. Secondary products such as cheese and ghee (clarified butter), were made from goat´s and cow´s milk. One of the apparently principal products derived from pigs was fat or grease.
As for meat consumption, at Old Babylonian Ur, sheep and goat meat appears only as an offering for the temple and on the occasion of special festivities. Likewise, during the Neo-Babylonian period, although older sheep at Uruk and Sippar were fattened systematically for a short period in the bit ure and then slaughtered, their meat was generally destined as food offerings to deities, and eventual consumption by temple staff. How such meat was prepared and when it was eaten, is indicated by a small number of so-called culinary tablets, such as those of the Yale Babylonian Collection, which contains recipes for the preparation of meat stews. These involve legs of mutton, as well as wild fowl such as pigeon and small birds, which may have been ducklings or sparrows.
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Re: Agriculture and Diet
Ok... time for someone to take part in the discussion here. I have a couple questions here... and I firmly believe there is no such thing as a 'stupid question'
First, the impression I'm getting from what you've said is that the temple staff were the only ones who consumed meat on anything approaching a regular basis. So, one would surmise then that the general population ate what we would consider a vegetarian diet (even with the small amounts of cheese and/or milk that may have been consumed). And outside of wild game that was caught, or eggs discovered in the nests of wild birds, little meat was available.
If I might be permitted a little aside here... this seems to correlate with a diet phenomenon that has been going through the U.S. based on a book called, "Eat Right for Your Type." Its basic premise is that we have the three basic blood types: O, B and A. Each of these types are correlated with different geographical areas,racial groups, and their predominant lifestyles.
Hunter gatherers, being among the oldest of human groups and the basis from which all humanity came form the "O" group. These are your meat eaters, i.e. meat and potatoes people!
A's, on the other hand, are from the first agricultural society's that arose as people gathered and formed cities... i.e. our Mesopotamian forebearers: Sumeria, Akkadia and Babylon and the other cradles of civilization. We (speaking for myself) are the vegetarians, and supposedly diets high in grain are best for us. And this does correspond with my personal dietary preferences. I could easily go onto a completely vegetarian diet (although I am terrible cheese-aholic! And I also LOVE shellfish of just about any type.
B's are the newest of the blood types and are said (I believe from what I can remember) to be the true Omnivores. They can eat just about anything they wish. This blood type is said to have developed as peoples moved into the European subcontinent and into the Americas.
Ok... but back to the meat/temple diet issue. One question I had was in remembering that a couple millenia after the Sumerians, the Jews in Palestine had quite a large scale system of temple sacrifices. What I had heard was that these sacrifices actually served as a food redistribution mechanism for the general population, implying that the meat was not for consumption solely by the priestly class (although they were the predominant consumers of it). Is this something fairly far removed from its roots many centuries previous to it in Mesopotamia or do you think there was some form of food redistribution?
This now gets us into the whole issue of the care of the poor, peasantry, etc., which I will have to admit, I know nothing about in terms of Mesopotamian culture. Much has been said in western culture about the Judeo-Christian concepts of caring for the poor, sick, etc. I'm curious as to whether this ethic had its roots in times much earlier?
Will try to reply to your questions to the best of my abilities. I am brand new to the Daily Life material and food and drink simply baffles me... Mind boggles whether I would LIKE the food if I were invited for dinner by one of our soul ancestors ...
What Dr. Potts said was that cattle, sheep and goat were too important to be slaughtered on a regular basis for food for normal people. This makes sense. Gardens and orchards thus provided the staple food for everyone. Temple records show that there were animal sacrifices in festivals and I guess I posted in the Mari and Karana thread of a cow which was going to the slaughtered as sacrifice... and travelled accompanied by the cook, who was to oversee the health of the animal until it reached its destiny!
What I find is little understood about animal sacrifice in this context is that animals were precious, so offering them to the gods was in itself an act of great power.
Food was a common sacrifice to the dead as well. I have to meditate as yet on the issue, but it seems now to me that one offered to the Gods and ancestors everyday essential material. Food and drink are also more easily accessible as sacrifice than metals or huge animals.
Who ate the food offered to the gods? Professor Dalley in the book of Mari and Karana, page 119, in the Chapter on Cult and Beliefs:
"Whether all meat was offered to a deity before being eaten by mortals is uncertain, but it seems possible, for that was the custom in neighbouring Iran. At Karana, the "Goddess" presumably Geshtinanna was given iced drinks and on occasion, She was alloted 10 litres of best beer.
It was, of course, apparent that the deity in the form of the statue did not actually eat the meat as a man would. So it was reckoned that the gods to some extent fed on the smell of the food. Since the scent of smell was thus an important attribute, they were also probably supplied with fragrant flowers, and bathed in sweet-smelling perfumed oils and resinous extracts."
I will look up in some more books about who ate ritual food. It seems to me that it would not be wrong if part of the food was ritually separated for temple staff though. Let´s face it, there should be a reasonable way of distributing the leftovers. The people lived on rations. I don´t think they would throw away simply good ritual food.
The question of food redistribution by the temple is interesting too. The temple being central to Mesopotamian cities clearly shows it has a social function. The same thing with the palace. Thus, there should be some redistribution system, especially during festival times.
From Mari, the only ritual text yet published comes also from the cult of Ishtar (quoting from Professor Dalley again, page 136). Title of the tablet is missing, so we don´t know whether it comes from a ceremony that was performed at the offering of Ishtar, or took place on a different occasion. A meal is set before the goddess, and various workers - the brewer, the carpenter, the leatherworker, the textile worker, apprentice, craftsmen and apprentice barbers - all dedicate their skills and their tools to the Her. Ritual songs are sung, jugglers and wrestlers perform, and when they have finished, the king takes his seat. Water is sprinkled three times in various specific parts of the shrine and then water in metal cups is held out ready for the needs of the ecstatics "...
Now, reading this ritual and contemplating our own practices, we can see that lots of people were involved in such occasions. Grounding was probably provided by water and ... food!!! The ecstatics were most probably the participants. So the king sat at the table and probably ate first... and then, at the end... all joined in. This is my educated guess.
Posting this now before I get thrown out!
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From Daily Life in Mesopotamia, pages 186-187:
"According to a detailed text from the Seleucid period, the divine statues in the temple of Uruk were served two meals daily. The first meal was served in the morning, when the temple opened, and the other was served at night, immediately before the doors of the sanctuary were closed. Each meal included two courses, called "main" and "second". From descriptions of divine meals, the following sequence can be reconstructed. First, a table was placed before the image. Water for washing was placed in a bowl. Then a variety of beverages, special cuts of meat and fruits were brought to the table.
When the gods ate, they were hidden from both priests and human beings by linen curtains drawn around the statue and table. Music was played during the meal and ritual fumigation was performed. At the end of the meal, the table was cleared. The curtains were opened and then drawn shut so the gods could wash their fingers. Clearly the statues of the gods did not and could not eat. In reality, the meal fo the god was scaled to feed the temple staff and their families. Also, the food from the divine meal was sent to the king for consumption, perhaps daily or only on special occasions.
In order to serve the gods, the temple was designed like a royal palace, with well-equipped kitchens, a reception suite to receive visitors, bedrooms, additional suites for the god/dess´ family and servants, a courtyard and stables. May temples featured a wharf where the god/des´ boat was moored that that S/He could visit other deities or His?her country home in Spring and Summer".
It seems thus logical to suppose that food was not ritually discarded but also redistributed. Royal banquets also included an enormous amount of food that could not go wasted. Thus, it is sound to presume that there was a system of food redistribution, and once rations were a common practice in Mesopotamia, they should have no difficulty in redistributing festivals and banquets leftovers.
Hope this helps a bit! I enjoyed having a look at some books to reply to this question!
Any more inputs... most welcome!!!
best always,
Lishtar
From the Depths and To the Heights to share in all spheres
Question on food leftovers in the Abzu List...
Hello,
I'm a schoolteacher with an interest in the ancient Near East. I just finished Georges Roux's book "Ancient Iraq," and I'm now in the middle of James Pritchard's "Ancient Near Eastern Texts." There's been a nagging question that neither of these books have been able to answer so far, regarding sacrifices made to the gods. It may sound silly, but I want to know, what happened to all the food the worshippers prepared for the gods, after the food was set out before the gods? For example, as per the "Daily Sacrifices to the Gods of the City of Uruk" in Pritchard's book (Akkadian Rituals, pp. 343 - 4), it seems that the gods were fed four meals a day, every day, consisting of 168 loaves of bread, 21 rams, 3 bulls, 8 lambs, plus ducks, ostrich eggs, cream, honey, etc. etc...that's a lotta food. I want to know what happened to all that food. Did it get eaten by humans, or was it thrown away? If they threw it away, where did they&nbs! p;throw it? I mean, after the elaborate protocol involved in preparing all the food and setting it before the gods, it would seem strange if it was all just ignominiously tossed onto a garbage heap. But it would also seem presumptuous (and potentially god-angering) for the people to eat it. But they'd have to do SOMETHING with all that food, because they had to prepare four meals a day, every day (that's not counting the extra meals they had to prepare on special festival days). So at the very least, they'd have to clear away the previous meal before setting out a new one... Anyway, like I said, I know this may seem like a silly question, but kids need simple answers, and inquiring minds want to know: WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL THAT FOOD?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks,
Brant Reiter
Generated the following replies from some luminaries...
(read on)
Lishtar
From the Depths and To the Heights to share in all spheres
Re: Question on food leftovers in the Abzu List...
1) The priests, and those who had what's called prebendary rights in the temple, received a share of the god's leftovers.
Anything the god didn't want, or couldn't finish, went to them.
Liz
2) Most of it was consumed by the priests and their families, though some was also eaten by those who brought the sacrificial offerings. The same is generally true of biblical sacrifices.
John Tvedtnes
Two brief but definitive answers!
Best wishes,
Lishtar
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Re: Agriculture and Diet - reply by Professor Hurovitz
His email is cut and pasted here. Enjoy! Direct from the Abzu list!
"Dear Brant,
The question is not silly at all. As a matter of fact, the author of the apocryphal additions to the book of Daniel (Daniel and the Priests of Bel) asked the same question and gives the answer. He tells us that the priests in fact consumed all the sacrifices, only they did it secretly in order to dupe the king and the public into thinking that Bel himself had done it. Daniel uncovers the trick by a feat of detective work which
caught the priests red handed. Read this amusing tale.
On a more historic vein, the sacrifices in fact were distributed among the clergy and we possess detailed lists concerning the actual allotments. The famous Sun Disk inscription of Nabubaladan, king of Babylon contains such an enumeration.
Another such list was published in Iraq 45 by McEwan. These lists survey the animal from head to tail and tell which
pieces of meat went to the king and to the various types of priests serving in the temple.
Oppenheim in Ancient Mesopotamia says that the sacrificial meal was set out before the god behind a curtain. After the god ate what he wanted, the curtain was removed and the priests ate the rest.
By the way, this is essentially no different than sacrificial proceedure in the Hebrew Bible where sacrifices are enjoyed by God, the priests, and the person who brought the sacrifice. But in Mesopotamia the sacrifices were not burnt, just displayed on a table analagous to the Biblical Table
of Shewbread.
I hope none of the professionals out there accuse me of oversimplification and over generalization. For them, Mea culpa ashamti.
Hope this is useful.
Victor
As usual, Professor Hurovitz shows flawless scholarship, gives the right references and ... he shows generosity. Generosity is essential for the transmission of Knowledge, whereby we are transported to the Portals of Wisdom as Acquired Intelligence ... without feeling... like fools. The real scholar in his or her generosity makes us undertand difficult concepts or makes crystal clear hard-to-grasp information.
Gods be forever Blessed for them! Great scholars and empowerer mentors are rare but ... do exist!
Best wishes,
Lishtar
From the Depths and To the Heights to share in all spheres
Re: Agriculture and Diet - reply by Professor Hurovitz
Another reply from a Master Assyriologist... and a teasing comment by Professor Hurovitz... as usual... GREAT!
On Fri, 14 Jun 2002, avigdor horovitz wrote:
> i don't know "how" the gods ate, although Mummu Tiamat probably didn't learn them manners very well.
> Victor
Although it was the scent of offerings that pleased the gods (cf. Gilg. XI 158-62), the Akkadian verb _aka:lu_ 'to eat' also has a meaning 'to enjoy or be entitled to the use or usefruct of something.' Thus one could also "eat" houses, land, slaves, tools, etc. So saying that the gods "ate" (_ikkilu:_) the offerings is fully covered by the meanings of Akkadian
_aka:lu_.
> On Fri, 14 Jun 2002, Christian Hainzinger wrote:
<snip>
>> HOW ate the god what he wanted? I read somewhere some years ago (can´t >> quote it exactly, sorry, i think it was a book from Michael Roaf on Ancient Mesopotamia), that people in Ancient Mesopotamia (at least in Babylon) believed that the god (in this case, Marduk) *ate* just the smell of the sacrificial meal, leaving the rest to the priests and the
others who where allowed to eat the sacrificed food. Is that right?
While we are on the subject of who gets to eat the sacrifices and offerings, the Assyrian texts provide fairly detailed, if somewhat scanty, information on this. In SAA 12, _Grants, Decrees and Gifts of the Neo-Assyrian Period_, nos. 68-81 are grouped together under the rubric "Edicts and Decrees for Temple Maintenance". Although each of these texts is different in origin, scope, and nature, it can be seen that the decrees in many instances not only specified who was responsible for providing the offering or sacrifice to the
temple, but also detailed its final distribution among the interested parties. These included not only the priests and other members of the temple household, but sometimes the palace as well. Particularly instructive in this matter is SAA 12 68:9-16.
These texts are only a miniscule sample of what once existed, but they are sufficient to show that, at least in Assyria, the distribution of sacrificial offerings was higly regulated.
Bob Whiting
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... and this reply I found Brilliant..
In order to understand how the gods "ate" their offerings in Mesopotamia all you have to do is to observe the same ritual in a Hindu or Chinese temple. I once asked a Chinese businessman (with a James Bond suitcase) who placed his lunch (sandwitch and Coca Cola) on the offering table in a temple in Taipei how does the deity "eat" his meal? His reply: the god eats the spirit of the food, whereas he himself eats the rest... (which is now blessed by the god).
Itamar Singer
hmmm... I am going next week to Paris... will offer lots of food scents to the gods over there!
Don´t we simply adore High Magick and all its metaphors?
Love to you all,
Lishtar
I
From the Depths and To the Heights to share in all spheres
And I also LOVE shellfish of just about any type.
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