68 dagmar kühn
for Samʾal (Kai 214:7).214 the cultivation of date palms, which was wide-
spread in Babylonia, is depicted only on a stele from tell halaf that shows
the artificial pollination of the date palm blossoms by a worker.215 the
cultivation of olive trees in the mediterranean zones of the ancient near
east was already important in the Bronze age and certainly continued
in the iron age, but is absent from the textual sources. Bar-rakkab only
mentions olive oil (Kai 215: 6).
4.4 Timberwood served as a building material and fuel for heating, cooking, and
smelting metals. the assyrians also received from the aramaeans of Syria
the famed cedar wood, which grew in the mountains of Lebanon, on the
anti-Lebanon and the amanus mountains. the resin was also an impor-
tant raw material.216 Besides cedar, boxwood from northern Syria had
some importance. Valuable furniture with intarsia of ivory was made of
boxwood and is mentioned in assyrian annals.217
4.5 TextilesLinen, wool, animal skins, and animal hair were the products of agricul-
ture and livestock raising. dyed multi-colored textiles of linen, wool, and
byssus were considered luxury goods, which the assyrians received as
tribute from aramaean vassal states. these dyed textiles were not only
imported from phoenicia (famous for its purple), but there was obviously
a native textile industry in Syria.218 e. Lipiński draws attention to the local
red-dyed wool (swt) in the inscription of Kulamuwa (Kai 24: 8). economic
prosperity under the rule of Kulamuwa made it possible to wear luxury
textiles like linen and byssus (Kai 24: 12–13). Shalmaneser iii received
214 Lipiński 2000a: 518 hints at deliveries of wine to the assyrians from Bit adini, Bit
agusi, Samʾal, and other northern Syrian regions.
215 Von oppenheim 1955: pl. 33, nos. 44, 45; dion 1997: 334; Lipiński 2000a: 523.
216 Lipiński 2000a: 524 draws attention to deliveries of wood and resin from Bit adini,
til-abni, and Samʾal to assurnasirpal ii, rima 2, a.0.101.1, p. 216, iii 55b–56a (cedar logs)
and Salmanassar iii, rima 3, text a.0.102.2, p. 18, ii 25 b and 26b (cedar beams and cedar
resin).
217 Lipiński 2000a: 526.
218 there are still many problems concerning textile production in Syria. the finds from
excavations are scarce and we can only obtain information on finished textiles indirectly
from the assyrian annals or in the assyrian reliefs; cf. cecchini 2000: 229.