Sumerian cuisine encompasses the food eaten within Sumer, the earliest known civilization. The oldest known culinary recipes originates from a series of four Sumerian clay tablets in the Yale Babylonian Collection.
Ingredients
Crops Of the cereals, barley was the most important; emmer and rice were also present, though less common.B. Lion & C. Michel, "Céréales", in Other field crops included date palms,F. Joannès, "Palmier-dattier", in flax,F. Joannès, "Lin", in and sesame.B. Lion, "Sésame", in Vegetables grown in gardens and orchards included cucumbers, leeks, garlic, onion, legumes (lentils, chickpeas, beans), and various kinds of herbs. Common fruit trees included pomegranates, figs, apples, quinces, and pears.J. M. Renfrew, "Vegetables in the Ancient Near Eastern Diet", in C. Michel, "Cultures potagères", in C. Michel & B. Lion, "Arbres fruitiers", in
Animal products Animals raised for meat and milk included sheep,B. Lion & C. Michel, "Ovins", in cows, goats,B. Lion & C. Michel, "Chèvre", in and camels.B. Hesse, "Animal Husbandry and Human Diet in the Ancient Near East", in Pigs were also raised for meat.B. Lion & C. Michel, "Porc", in Geese, ducks, pigeons, and chickens were raised for their meat and their eggs.B. Lion & C. Michel, "Animaux domestiques", in B. Lion & C. Michel, "Oiseau", in Honey was collected from wild bees, and later through beekeeping.C. Michel, "Miel", in
Alcohol Beer made from barley was the most common alcoholic beverage.J.-P. Brun, Archéologie du vin et de l'huile, De la Préhistoire à l'époque hellénistique, Paris, 2004, pp. 46-47 & 131-132M. A. Powell, "Wine and the Vine in Ancient Mesopotamia: The Cuneiform Evidence", in P. E. McGovern et al. (ed.), The Origins and Ancient History of Wine, Amsterdam, 1997, pp. 97–122.
Yale culinary tablets All surviving Sumerian recipes can be found on a series of four clay tablets in the Yale Babylonian Collection. Three of the tablets date to the Old Babylonian period, while the fourth dates to the Neo-Babylonian period, more than a thousand years later. The most complete of the tablets contains 25 recipes: 21 meat dishes, three vegetable and meat dishes, and one vegetarian dish.
Recipes Known recipes include Elamite Broth (a rich soup composed of water, fat, dill, cilantro, leek, and garlic), Tuh’u (a boiled stew of diced lamb), and Unwinding (a soft soup that combines water, fat, kurrat, cilantro, salt, leek, garlic and crushed dry sourdough).
See also
Agriculture in Mesopotamia
References
Bibliography
Further reading