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Some Thoughts on the Diet of Mesopotamia from c. 3000–600 B.C.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Rosemary Ellison
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Extract

Evidence for the Mesopotamian diet comes from several sources. Palaeobotanical and zoological remains found on excavated sites tell of the existence of edible plants and animals in the area; scenes on cylinder seals, plaques and reliefs show people eating and cooking; and the cuneiform texts give details of crops grown, animals kept and food issued to the gods, to the king and his household and to ordinary people. Unfortunately this evidence is not evenly spread for every period or every town. Texts giving information about food are abundant at Lagaš during the reigns of Lugalanda and Urukagina in the Early Dynastic III period, at Ur in the Ur III and Old Babylonian periods, at Mari during the reign of Zimri-Lim in the early second millennium and at Nuzi and Nippur during the mid-second millennium (e.g. Deimel 1931, Pinches 1908, Birot 1960 and 1964, Bottéro 1957, Lacheman 1950, Clay 1906). But there are many gaps and there are few, if any, ration lists during the Neo-Assyrian period. The identification of many terms is uncertain and disputed. This difficulty in interpretation does not only apply to texts. To take another example, the scenes on cylinder seals are small and often stylized. They may have ritual rather than practical significance and of course they may be inaccurate, showing what the craftsman believed happened and not what actually did. However, there was no great division between town and country and one job and another so that a seal-cutter living say in Tell Harmal would be familiar with the activities of a farmer, or a brewer or a baker.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 45 , Issue 1 , Spring 1983 , pp. 146 - 150
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1983

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