Sacred Trees and Enclosed Gardens j 9797 97
word for the female flowers was uhinnu, and the name for the male flowers was rikbu.
Uhinnu is literally translated as “fresh, green dates.” Recall that the female flowers resemble
tiny green fruits (see Figure 5.4B). Hence, the word uhinnu may refer to unfertilized female
date flowers. Significantly, rikbu (male flowers) is the noun derived from the same verb rak-
abu that Pruessner connected to the word “graft.” Modern dictionaries translate rakabu
as “to ride, to mount, to be on top.”^33 This translation is related to the Hebrew cognate
word meaning “to graft.” Moreover, a related Akkadian word, rikibtu, means “sexual inter-
course.” Thus, the male flowers of the date palm were referred to by a word that suggested
both their use in artificial pollination and the sexual nature of the act.
Modern Akkadian dictionaries accept Pruessner’s translation of rukkubu as “to polli-
nate.” In the most recent version of the Code of Hammurabi, Martha Roth translates the
two laws as follows:#64
If a man gives his orchard to a gardener to pollinate (the date palms), as long as the
gardener is in possession of the orchard, he shall give to the owner of the orchard two-
thirds of the yield of the orchard, and he himself shall take one third.#65
If the gardener does not pollinate the (date palms in the) orchard and thus diminishes
the yield, the gardener [shall measure and deliver] a yield for the orchard to the owner
of the orchard in accordance with his neighbor’s yields.^34These translations make it clear that Babylonians understood the importance of pollina-
tion to fruit production and that they practiced artificial pollination. Pruessner provided
additional evidence for artificial pollination in the form of a contract between the owner of
an orchard and a gardener:A date grove of the god Amurru, in the field of the Arahtum- [canal],— (there are) dry
leaves and offshoots,— the date grove of Hurazatum, from Hurazatum, Apil- ilišu, the
son of Uraš- mubalit, has rented for caretaking. He shall pollinate the orchard; two-
thirds (of the produce) the owner of the garden, one- third the renter shall take. Five
talents of urê, ten male flower clusters he shall give (besides).^35Most of the contract simply restates law #64 of the Hammurabi Code. However, the con-
tract also stipulates that the gardener shall, in addition to two- thirds of the harvest, give to
the landowner “ten male flower clusters.” This stipulation is important for several reasons.
First, it indicates that the male flowers were used as a form of currency to pay for the use
of the land. Second, we can infer that the male flowers provided in payment would have to
have been collected prior to the opening of the flower buds (anthesis), since male date palm
flowers begin shedding their pollen immediately upon opening. Third, we can assume that
intact male rachillae were used in artificial pollination rather than pollen collected from
the male rachillae, else the landowner would surely have specified pollen, taltallu, from the
gardener, rather than male flowers. Fourth, the terms of the contract imply that male trees
were grown on the same land as the female trees; otherwise, it would be difficult for the