The Babylonian World (Routledge Worlds)

Hardened resins

Two hard resins, originating in opposite ends of the Old World, have been found in
Mesopotamia. Beads of Baltic amber (Todd 1985 ; Heltzer 1999 ) are known in small
numbers from Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid or Seleucid graves at Babylon (Reuther
1926 : 211 , 223 , 264 ). While a series of transactions (rather than direct trade) may
have been responsible for the diffusion of Baltic amber to the Mediterranean or
Anatolia and eventually to Babylonia, the identification of a copal pendant at Tell
Asmar (ancient Eshnunna) in the Diyala region in a third-millennium context is
much harder to explain. This piece, once incorrectly identified as amber, is made of
a hardened resin that originated in East Africa, probably in Mozambique, Zanzibar
or Madagascar (Meyer et al. 1991 : 289 ).

Aromatics

Although ‘incense’ – most often but not exclusively frankincense (Boswellia sacra) or
myrrh (Commiphora myrrha) – is normally associated with the ancient South Arabian
kingdoms (Saba, Qataban, Ma’in, Himyar) of the first millennia BCand ADin what
is today Yemen, whence it was traded overland and by sea to many corners of the
ancient world, the ancient Mesopotamians also had a wide range of terms for aromatic
substances. Some of these have been identified with frankincense (Sumerian SˇIM.GIG
= Akkadian kanaktum; Sumerian SˇIM.HI.A = Akkadian labanatu), and traders
specifically associated with the substance are attested in third-millennium texts (Zarins
1997 : 261 ). Another term, linked with Dilmun (SˇIM.DILMUN) which occurs at
Fara in texts dating to c. 2500 BC, is unidentified but should perhaps be linked with
the word for bdellium (Sumerian SˇIM.BI.ZI.DA = Akkadian guh
̆

lu), 5. 28 tons of
which were seized by one of Assurbanipal’s generals in the seventh century BC.
According to the account of this confiscation, the guhlu, which belonged to a rebel
chieftain in southern Babylonia named Nabu-bel-sumate, came from Dilmun (Potts
et al. 1996 ). Although guh
̆

luhas, in the past, been identified with substances as diverse
as antimony, kohl(eye make-up) and bdellium – the aromatic gum exuded by
Commiphora mukul– this latter identification seems confirmed by a comparison of
Assyrian guh
̆

luand Sanskrit gugguluwhich, in all probability, was borrowed from
Akkadian in the first millennium BC.Commiphora mukulhas a wide distribution,
extending from Dhofar in the southern part of the Arabian peninsula to India. As
with so many other commodities discussed above – whether tin, ivory or carnelian

• it is entirely possible that aromatic resins were also imported into Mesopotamia
  during the third millennium BCfrom the Harappan world. At that early date, it is
  also possible that South Arabian frankincense and myrrh may have reached the temples
  of Babylonia and Assyria by land to Oman and by sea up the Persian Gulf, but direct
  transport overland from Yemen via camel caravan is unlikely to have occurred before
  the first millennium BC. Texts from Sur Jar’a (ancient Anat) on the Middle Euphrates
  in Iraq, the capital of Suhu, attest to caravan traffic between that region, Tayma (in
  north-western Arabia), and Saba, the most powerful state of the period in what is
  today Yemen (Cavigneaux and Ismail 1990 : 351 ) and the most important source of
  frankincense and myrrh in antiquity. The increasing use of aromatics in Babylonia
  at this time is well illustrated by the number of square, four-legged incense burners

— Babylonian sources of exotic raw materials —