i3/šamnum: Vegetable oils and animal fats in early urban societies of Syro-Mesopotamia – production, distribution and usage
Final Report Abstract
Mesopotamia for reconstructing production, distribution, and consumption and associated practices based on sufficient documentation in archival cuneiform texts. The lack of studies on oils and fats gave the wrong impression that they were of minor relevance, but we soon found ourselves in the middle of one of the most fascinating research projects constantly producing new findings. We, that were Assyriologists from the LMU Munich (Walther Sallab-erger, Paola Paoletti) with a focus on the Early Bronze Age (3rd millennium BC), and from the EHESS Paris (Grégory Chambon, Manon Ramez or Anne-Isabelle Langlois) for the Mid-dle Bronze Age (2000–1600 BC). We worked our way through particularly rich archives for individual topics between 2020 and 2023, starting with sesame, the most important oil plant after its introduction (around 2280–2240 BC), from cultivation to pressing and use. We then dealt with olive oil, almond oil, Carthamus oil, butter, lard, tallow, fish oil, scented oil, and various usages. As soon as a relevant group of texts was studied, the specific results and the editions of selected texts were stored in the joint database i3MesopOil (doi: 10.5282/mesopoil), which Veronika Gacia (LMU) set up and maintained. After just a few months, data was available for internal project discussions, which quickly yielded new find-ings. The digital data collection already offers many results, others our publications, but the central work will be our monograph titled “Vegetable Oils and Animal Fats: Resources, Production and Uses in Early Mesopotamia”, of which currently (12/2024) about 85% have been written and edited. Central is the realisation that oils and fats were primarily used to anoint the skin. Skincare, well-being, fragrance and medicinal use are closely linked here. With the introduction of sesame, anointing became a widespread practice and developed into one of the basic needs in Early Mesopotamia. Only butter was a precious foodstuff, while lard, tal-low or fish oil were also used for specific technical purposes. We hope that our monograph will also be received by Near Eastern archaeology. The archaeological collaboration of Juli-ette Mas (EHESS, Paris) could only be a start. The results of a lipid analysis of vessels from an old excavation could easily be interpreted as containers for scented oil on the basis of textual evidence.
Publications
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Oil. Encyclopedia of the Bible Online. De Gruyter.
Galvin, Garrett; Geybels, Hans; Hoffmann, Thomas; Jacob, Ronja; Montanaro, Andrew; Paoletti, Paola; Schwartz, Joshua; Seidenberg, David; Thomas, Zachary & Young, Benjamin
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Vegetable Oils and Animal Fats in Early Urban Societies of Syro-Mesopotamia: Digital Data Collection. 2020-2023
Sallaberger, Walther
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“Ferment to Be”:. Eating and Drinking in the Ancient Near East, 89-136. Zaphon Verlag.
Paoletti, Paola
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Von Sesam, Oliven, Mandeln, Kuh- und Ziegenmilch, Schweinen, Schafen und Fischen: Komplementäre Subsistenzstrategien für Fette und Öle im frühbronzezeitlichen Mesopotamien (2150–2000 v.Chr.), pp. 171–192 in: Pohl, Antonia / Streck, Michael P. (ed.), Der Altorientalische Mensch in seiner Umwelt. 11. Internationales Colloquium der Deutschen Orientgesellschaft. 978-3-447-12195-8
Sallaberger, Walther
