Food and Drink in Mari and Karana
The villagers who lived in the little kingdoms of Mari and Karana produced most of the basic food that was eaten there by their labor on the land. How much of that land was owned by palace and temple, we cannot yet say, although the texts tell us that the palace owned and distributed some agricultural equipment. Certainly plenty of food found its way to the king´s banqueting hall, and was recorded in writing on the way.
With Yasmah-Addu´s penchant for luxurious living already established, it comes as no surprise to find that his dinner menu is often much larger than that of his more austere successor Zimri-Lim, Shibtu´s husband. Let us see an example of such a meal:
"900 liters of KUM bread, 60 liters of bread made with sammidatum-flour, 2,020 liters of sour emsum bread made of burrum cereal, 950 liters of cake, 2,185 liters of sour emsum bread made of barley, 940 liters of alappanum-mead, 100 liters of chick peas, 3 liters of sammidatum-flour, 70 liters of linseed-oil, 3 liters of honey (or date syrup), 4 liters of linseed, 5 liters of dates - meal of the king and his men in Mari on the fourth day of the month Kiskisum."
Unfortunately, we do not know many men sat down to this feast, but compare with the menu of Zimri-Lim, which is considerable less in quantity:
"147 liters of KUM bread, 102 liters of sour emsum bread, 10 liters of alappanum-mead, 24,5 liters of sipkum-cereal, 14 liters of linseed oil, 3 liters of honey/date syrup, 10 liters of linseed, 5 liters of dates, 2 liters of butuftum-flour, 2 liters of appanum-pulses".
Surely these menu lists do not give the whole story. They were the records from only one part of the palace kitchen supplies and there are other texts which fill out the picture, so that the diet is shown to be less starchy.
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I know, I know I said I was going to do this post this evening... but it is too exceptional to wait... Here I go, quoting from Professor Dalley, of course:
ICE (1)
When the summer is at its height in Northern Mesopotamia, the temperature often rises to over 100ºF. In such weather a cool drink is a delight. To reach this peak of luxury the rulers of Mari and Rimah built ice-houses, where they stored ice, shuripum, that was collected during the winter. The foundation inscription of such an ice house at Terqa has been discovered; and if we are to believe it, Zimri-Lim established the practice of keeping ice in that area.
"Zimri-Lim, the son of Yahdum-Lim, the king of Mari, Tuttul and the land of Hana, was the builder of an ice-house, which no previous king had ever built, on the bank of the Euphrates. He had ice brought and built an ice-house on the bank of the Euphrates at Terqa, the city beloved of Dagan".
Two fragmentary letters from the governor of Terqa to Zimri-Lim describe the problems of preventing the ice melting, although unfortunately they do not give a continuous text. In a third letter, he asked Zimri-Lim to send an official to be in charge of gathering and storing ice at Terqa. We know, however, that iced drinks were not unknown at Mari before the time of Zimri-Lim, so perhaps only the type of construction or the placing of the ice-house was new, for Aplabanda, the king of Carchemish wrote to Yasmah-Addu during the Assyrian interregnum that preceded Zimri-Lim´s reign, saying:
"Now there is ice in Ziranum. It is plentiful. Set some of your servants to guard it, that they may guard it for you, ad whil you are staying there, have them bring it to you regularly. And if you have no good wine with you to drink, write to me and I shall send to you good wine for you to drink!"
Shamshi-Adad, the king, wrote to his son about collecting ice:
"About collecting ice, is it good when porters have to bring ice from 20 or 40 miles away? Give orders to the cup bearer´s servants to the ushmum-officials,a nd make them collect the ice! Let them wash it free of twigs and dung and dirt!"
more tonight or later ... it gets better... too
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(Lishtar is having a Mesopotamian break after two spreadsheets )
The texts of the previous post show that ice was not formed in the ice-house by flooding and freezing, as it is made in Iran in modern times. Whether or not Yasmah-Addu had built an ice-house at Mari, is uncertain. Zimri-Lim was not content, however, to build one only at Terqa: he ordered Yaqqim-Addu to build one at Saggaratum too, and sent him a builder to complete the work. But Yaqqim-Addu did not have any timber beams big enough for the job,a nd had to send a working party off to a wood to find some. There must also have been an ice-store at Qatara, within the kingdom of Karana, for Aqba-hammu wrote to Queen Iltani saying:
"Let them unseal the ice of Qatara. The goddess, you and Belassunu (Iltani´s siter) drink regularly, but make sure the ice is kept safe."
The letter does not actually say that the ice was used with wine, but ice comes with wine in a Mari text about food and drink for visiting Elamites. It is probably that fruit juices were also iced for drinking. So this practice of transporting and storing ice, common in the Eastern Mediterranean in mediaeval times , is now known to go back at least to the time of Hammurabi in Northern Mesopotamia. It is a practice which shows a high standard of living and respect for the luxuries of life, reinforcing the evidence of the excavated palace architecture.
Again, another Mesopotamian first!
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Re: Food and Drink in Mari and Karana
Sources of protein
Meat was certainly eaten by people as well as being offered to the gods. There was a notable profession, that of animal-fattener, known from both palaces, a man who fed animals on barley. The Mari palace supported two animal-fatteners, named Shamash-tappe and Asirum. They fattened oxen, sheep, pigs, deer and birds. One letter from Mari concerns a top quality barley-fattened ox that would have to make a journey by boat for a religious offering; but in the case the ox falls ill en route, a member of the kitchen staff is to travel with it, so that whe can butcher it and send the meat to the palace instead if necessary.
A ditribution list from Mari shows tht cuts of mutton were given both to soverein envoys who were staying in the palace, and to musicians, workmen, a priest and a palace attendant. The palace at Chagar Bazar was a center for the distribution of food, some of it meat from the department of the animal-fattener. One text mentions a crate of meat which ws taken from there to another town.
Hares were hunted for food, and on one occasion when the six men who had caught some brought them to the palace at Mari, they were rewarded with three shekels of silver for their pains. Gazelles too may have been eaten; or possibly they were caught for royal parks and fet in order to keep them alive and well, not fattened for suculence. Certainly they were eaten at the court of King Solomon, according to the Old Testament.
Very little information is available for domesticated fowl at this period. The cockerel, with his distinctive crest is known for certain in Assyria some four centuries later from a drawing on ivory; geese and ducks were certainly kept as domesticated birds in the first millennium and almost certainly much earlier. But so far the Mari texts mention only professional bird-catchers who capture fat TU.Tul-birds for the governor of Saggaratum and he sends them on to Mari for Zimri-Lim. When ostrich eggs were found at some distance from Saggaratum, the eggs were collected and taken to the governor, who sent them to Zimri-Lim so that splendid shells could be used as vessels rather than for the contents as food.
Off-topic note by Lishtar: hmm... I guess Enkidu before Shamhat was then a veggie... because he did not know probably how to cook food either...
Tomorrow, something errrr... special... for them!!! A plague of locusts, when the little ones are captured and sent to the king as a delicacy!!!
And they did not have telly or Survival sort of programs in those times ...
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Re: Food and Drink in Mari and Karana
Then, a plague of locusts was a chance source of protein. Kibri-Dagan, the governor of Terqa under Zimri-Lim, wrote to his king:
"Just as I was about to write to my lord, locusts descended on Terqa. Because the weather was too hot, they did not settle. But now I am sending to my lord as many locusts as were caught."
Don´t know how many of us would reeeeeaaaaally enjoy to go back in time... for dinner!
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Re: Food and Drink in Mari and Karana
Fish was another source of protein, some of considerable size, according to explorer and excavator Sir Henry Layard, referring to a fresh water lake 120km from Karana. In addition to natural sources of fresh fish such as the lake referred to by Layard, artificial ponds and ditches were stocked with fish. A fragmentary list of supplies for an evening meal mentions 60 fish and 23 birds from one man, 33 fish and x birds from another.
Some tablets from Karana show that both dried and potted fish were known:
"Speak to Iltani, thus says Amur-sha-Shamash. May Adad and Geshtinanna grant you long life! Your fish roes in salt water in Qatara have been turning yellow for a long time. Now, why don´t you dry the fish roes?"
Queen Iltani was sent a special container of shrimps by her sister Amat-Shamash, who was a priestess down in Sippar. Amat-Shamash wanted to be sent some slaves, and offered presents as inducement:
"The slaves whom my father gave me have grown old. I have sent half a mina of silver to the king; allow me my claim and get him to send me slaves who have been captured recently, and who are trustworthy. In recollection of you, I have sent to you five minas of first-rate wool and one container of shrimps".
Sippar is far from the sea, so the shrimps must have been preserved in some way to make the double journey, some 300km from the sea to Sippar, then another 300km to Karana.
Most fish were caught locally though. The palace in Karana kept in the pay-roll a fisherman called Zirashe, and he probably maintained various natural and artificial ponds stocked with fish within the kingdom. Little fish-hooks of bronze, just like modern ones, were found in the excavations of the Mari palace.
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