The Babylonian World (Routledge Worlds)

Among scenes on rectangular moulds are a man holding a stag by its antler with his
dog in attendance, a lion attacking a humped bovine from the rear, and a seated
female figure, naked except for headdress and jewellery. Other animals represented
on the moulds include gazelles, birds and hedgehogs. Near the palace entrance, Room
167 contained a cooking range. A rectangular mudbrick bench incorporated a row
of five hearths. Each has a bottom opening for fuel in the front of the bench and an
opening for cooking in the top of the bench; presumably cooking pots would have
rested on a support (Parrot 1958 : 24 – 26 ; Margueron 2004 : 492 ).

WHAT DID THE BABYLONIANS EAT

AND DRINK?

The following list does not aim to be exhaustive but to give a general picture of the
types of identifiable foods and drinks consumed in Babylonia in the Old Babylonian
period. Ancient lists of terms for items of food and drink are preserved on Tablets
23 – 24 of the thematic lexical series called Ur 5 .ra = h
̆

ubulluand their Old Babylonian
‘forerunners’ (Reiner 1974 : 67 – 90 , 109 ff.). Tablet 23 lists soups, beers, brewing
products, flours and breads; Tablet 24 sweeteners, fats, herbs and spices, milk products,
legumes, grains, fruits and vegetables.

Plant-based foods

Plants and their products dominated the Babylonians’ diet. Staple foods and drinks
included barley, beer, garlic, onions, dates and sesame oil. Other vegetables and fruits
were also important. Many Akkadian (and Sumerian) terms for plants and plant-based
foods resist identification and, even when a plant is identified, it can be uncertain
which part was used (Powell 1998 : 290 – 91 ).

Cereals

Barley (ûm; Hordeumspp.) and, less frequently, wheats including emmer (kuna ̄sˇum;
Triticum dicoccum) featured in the Babylonians’ diet as whole grains and, after milling,
as various types of flour (qe ̄mum) and coarser groats (mundum); cereal products were
consumed in many types of beers, soups, porridges, cakes and breads (e.g. Milano
1993 – 97 a: 22 – 31 ; Powell 2003 : 13 ; Sasson 2004 : 187 , 190 ). We have a relatively
detailed knowledge of the ingredients of a cake called mersum: it was based on flour,
usually combined with some kind of fat, and in texts from Mari additions include
dates, terebinth nuts, garlic, cumin, black cumin, coriander and fruit syrup or possibly
honey (Bottéro 1995 : 22 – 23 ; Bottéro 2004 : 23 – 24 ). Cereal products in the Yale
recipes include a malted barley product called bappiru, also used in brewing beer,
which is often translated as beer bread but was probably a powder (Bottéro 1995 :
40 ; Curtis 2001 : 215 – 16 ).

Vegetables

The following list based on cuneiform sources is derived from Powell ( 2003 : 13 – 15 ,
19 – 22 ). The long-lasting bulbs of garlic (sˇu ̄mu ̄ or h
̆

azannum; Allium sativum) were

— Food and drink in Babylonia —