Combining all the available sources still leaves many gaps in terms of time and
place for the whole of Babylonia during the period c. 2000 – 200 BC. It has to be
emphasised that we are dealing with sporadic pieces of evidence and that a coherent
picture is beyond our reach. There is a concentration of evidence dating to the Old
Babylonian period (c. 2000 – 1595 BC) and this will be the chronological focus of the
present study. The geographical scope is Babylonia itself and the city of Mari upstream
on the Euphrates to the north-west. In the Old Babylonian period, Mari was culturally
very close to Babylonia, although it was the capital of an independent state, and
Akkadian texts and archaeological remains found there give valuable information
about food and drink.
SOURCES OF FOOD AND DRINKAny study of food and drink is intimately connected with the environment (Postgate
1992 : 14 – 18 , 157 – 90 ). Babylonia lay on an alluvial plain crossed by the Euphrates
and Tigris rivers. The late spring floods of the Tigris and Euphrates fed by melt-
water from Anatolia were pivotal events in the agricultural year. Summers were hot
and dry. Babylonia was south of the rain-fed agricultural belt, so irrigation was
necessary to sustain agriculture on any sizeable scale.
The rivers and their channels, ponds and marshes provided habitats for a variety
of food resources, including fish, the meat and eggs of birds and turtles, and wild
boar. Water collected directly or via wells had many uses including drinking, brewing
beer and cooking. The combination of environment and climate made salt readily
available. Orchards and gardens near water supported date palms, fruit trees, vegetables,
including onions and cucumbers, and spices. Irrigated fields were planted with cereals,
predominantly barley, as well as with legumes, including pulses and sesame. The
most common domesticated animals were sheep accompanied by goats, which could
graze on fallow fields and the steppe. Animals kept nearer or in settlements included
cattle, pigs, ducks and geese. The uncultivated steppe provided food for those who
hunted for it, such as game and truffles.
Most Babylonian food and drink was local in origin but imports also played a role,
including wine, nuts and olives from the north, where the rainfall was greater and
the terrain hillier.
FOOD AND DRINK IN SOCIETYMost of our evidence for Babylonia relates to people who lived in cities rather than
in the countryside, either in villages or in nomadic groups, and concerns the higher
echelons of the social hierarchy rather than the mass of ordinary people.
Eating and drinking practices were seen as a marker of Babylonian civilisation. In
the Old Babylonian version of the Epic of Gilgamesˇ, the civilising of the wild man
Enkidu by the prostitute Sˇamkatum includes introducing him to the proper ways of
eating and drinking: ‘Enkidu did not know how to eat bread (aklum), how to drink
ale (sˇikarum) he had never been shown’ (Old Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesˇ II 90 – 93 ;
George 2003 : 176 – 77 ).
Enkidu is an enthusiastic pupil and ends up drunk on seven jugs of ale. Before
this incident, as a member of the wild animal herds, he shared their food and drink:
— Frances Reynolds —