The Babylonian World (Routledge Worlds)

Minerals

Given the climate, salt (t.a ̄ btum) was an important element in the Babylonians’ diet
and was collected from salines, briny lakes or marshes, after natural evaporation (Potts
1997 : 103 – 06 ). Salt was important for preserving meat and fish and this may lie
behind the large quantities of kinds of salt coming into the palace in Mari (Bottéro
1980 – 83 : 194 – 95 ; Sasson 2004 : 195 ). Salt is an ingredient in 17 of the 35 Yale
recipes (Bottéro 1995 : 161 ).

Drinks

Water

Water (mû) was the basic drink but, although abundant, it was exploited in many
different ways and establishing an accessible source of clean drinking water could be
difficult (Van De Mieroop 1997 : 158 – 61 ; Margueron 2004 : 495 – 500 ). Water in the
form of ice (sˇurı ̄pum) was used to chill drinks in northern Mesopotamia (Margueron
2004 : 493 – 94 ; Dalley 2002 : 91 – 93 ).

— Food and drink in Babylonia —

Figure 11. 1 Assyrian palace relief showing a fisherman

(courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum).