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Gender-ambiguous people in ancient Mesopotamia were powerful and important members of society more than four millennia ago.

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Versions of some of these recipes are still used today!

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According to Herodotus the Ancient Assyrians who lived in a region east of Egypt, preserved corpses in honey. George P. Monger wrote in "Marriage Customs of the World From Henna to Honeymoons": "Perhaps the ancient Assyrians did have a true system of marriage by purchase, according to the Greek historian Herodotus (484-424 B.C.), with a system of public auction of young women for brides.

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Mesopotamian Magic in the First Millennium B.C. - The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Far from being considered irrational, magic was the guiding principle by which Mesopotamians understood various natural phenomena and their positive and negative consequences.

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Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-witchcraft Rituals online

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Heritage

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Women and Witchcraft in Ancient Assyrian

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Women and Witchcraft in Ancient Assyrian

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A multidisciplinary team of researchers studied a large body of texts to find out how people in the ancient Mesopotamian region (within modern day Iraq) experienced emotions in their bodies thousands of years ago, analysing one million words of the ancient Akkadian language from 934-612 BC in the form of cuneiform scripts on clay tablets.

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If you Google Tappūtī-Bēlet-ekallim, you will find dozens of articles praising her as the first perfumer. Online, Tappūtī-Bēlet-ekallim is presented as a feminist, a scientist, and an entrepreneur.…

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Two teams cooperate in this project combining their expertise in administrative cuneiform documents and their interest in technologies and the socio-economic history of Bronze Age Western Asia: The German team of LMU Munich (Walther Sallaberger, Paola Paoletti): Early Bronze Age (3000-2000 BCE), Sumerian and Akkadian sources from Mesopotamia and Ebla The French team of EHESS

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Material Culture of Mesopotamia and Beyond 1-1

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L'identification de matières premières végétales dans les périodes de l'âge du Bronze et du Fer repose souvent sur des sources peu détaillées et peu explicites. Les apports des nouvelles disciplines de l'archéobotanique et des analyses organiques, couplés avec ceux des connaissances actuelles des sciences du vivant permettent d'éclairer les identifications proposées à partir des sources littéraires par des preuves matérielles. Les deux exemples présentés, celui de l'encens et celui du sésame, montrent les écueils et limites des démarches purement étymologiques et ouvrent sur une série de questions méthodologiques dans le traitement des sources.

The identification of plant products in the Bronze and Iron ages lies mainly on written sources that lack details and descriptions. The findings of the new disciplines of archaeobotany and archaeometry coupled with the current knowledge of natural sciences allow to confront the proposed identifications, based on literary sources, with material evidences. The two examples chosen, incense and sesame, show the difficulties and limits of identifications based solely on etymology and open a series of methodological questions in our treatment of the sources available.
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1Les sources textuelles représentent encore aujourd'hui la source majeure des identifications des matières végétales pour les âges du Bronze (env. 3 200-1 300/1 200 av. J.-C.) et du Fer (env. 1 100-600 av. J.-C.) voire pour les périodes classiques au Proche et Moyen-Orient. Les découvertes et les travaux des quarante dernières années ont, dans ce domaine, permis de faire progresser et d'affiner sensiblement l'interprétation du corpus pour les noms des végétaux.

2Les textes disponibles sont cependant inégalement répartis spatialement et chronologiquement (Tableaux 1 et 2). Par ailleurs, de nombreuses sources végétales citées ne peuvent toujours pas être identifiées faute d'éléments suffisants de caractérisation (morphologie, habitat, origine...) dans les textes existants. Ainsi, sur quatorze produits aromatiques cités dans les balances de comptes en argent (" Silver balanced accounts ") de la période d'Ur III (2 112-2 004 av. J.-C. dans la chronologie moyenne), aucun n'est identifié de façon sure 1. Pour les produits des textes suméro-akkadiens identifiés à partir des listes bilingues de la période néo-assyrienne, N. Postgate a souligné les limites et les dangers de l'entreprise 2. Enfin, comme le note N. Baum pour l'Égypte ptolémaïque : " Il convient (...) de s'interroger sur l'écart creusé entre les documents originaux, donnant des aperçus cohérents du règne végétal tel que le percevaient les Égyptiens, et les données qui en sont tirées pour être réparties sous différentes rubriques obéissant à une structure alphabétique ou taxonomique, éloignée de leurs conceptions " 3. En outre, de nombreuses attributions botaniques issues des travaux des années 1940-1960 4, bien que toujours fréquemment citées, ont été depuis remises en cause par les apports de textes nouveaux ou par les découvertes issues de l'archéobotanique et, depuis une vingtaine d'années, des analyses de résidus organiques.

Tab. 1. Tableau des sources littéraires présentant des indications sur les plantes aromatiques à l'âge du Bronze

Tab. 2. Tableau des sources littéraires présentant des indications sur les plantes aromatiques aux âges du Fer

3Nous nous proposons d'étudier deux exemples mettant en jeu différentes problématiques qui se posent aujourd'hui aux chercheurs dans le traitement des sources. L'exemple de l'identification de l'encens permet d'examiner les apports croisés de l'analyse des textes et des analyses organiques de résidus archéologiques. Celui-ci permet en outre d'appréhender le concept de groupements de végétaux, invitant à questionner la recherche d'une identification unique pour chaque nom apparaissant dans les textes antiques. Le cas du sésame, à travers la confrontation des indications textuelles, des découvertes de l'archéobotanique et des apports de l'ethnobiologie, pose la question des substitutions de végétaux et des glissements possibles de dénomination dans le temps.

Fig. 1. Boswellia sacra (encens oliban), Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen (List of Koehler Images) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

1, 2, 2a fleur ; 3, 3a calice avec disque et style et stigmate ; 4 calice ; 5 étamine ; 6 ovaire (section transversale) ; 7, 8 fruit ; 9 drupe (section transversale) ; 10 noyau.

Fig. 2. Boswellia sacra, encens-oliban exsudation de résine sur entaille, wadi Dawkah, Oman.

© Élisabeth Dodinet.

4Le genre avait été proposé traditionnellement sous deux noms dans l'espace levantin et moyen-oriental : (1) l'akkadien kanaktu ((GIŠ.)ŠIM.GÍG) également identifié à de l'opopanax ( Opopanax sp., Apiaceae) 5 ; (2) ŠIM.ḪI.A, glosé labªnatu dans les sources assyriennes tardives, interprétation fondée sur l'analogie avec l'hébreu lebonªh et l'arabe lubân 6. En Égypte, l'encens est généralement proposé pour le terme senter quoique l'interprétation ne fasse pas l'unanimité et ait été notamment rejetée très tôt par V. Loret 7.

5Le terme kanaktu est attesté de façon récurrente à partir de l'akkadien ancien (III e millénaire av. J.-C.) et du paléo-babylonien (2004-1595 av. J.-C.) et persiste jusqu'au I er millénaire avant J.-C.

8 AnSt 7, 128 : 16 (lettre de Gilgamesh) ; Iraq, 14 42 : 48 (Aššur-nāṣir-apli/Assurnasirpal II, 883-8 (...)

9 AfO 16, 48 : 10 (Bogğazkale/Boğhazkoi = Hattusa, capitale des Hittites).

10 Ebeling, 1950b, p. 28 : 16 ; huile de k. avec le déterminatif bois/arbre (GEŠ) AMT 87, 1 : 13, 99, (...)

6Les citations pour kanaktu permettent de dégager plusieurs éléments. Il s'agit d'un arbre (1) venant d'un environnement montagneux, qui a pu être acclimaté et planté dans des parcs royaux en Assyrie au I er millénaire avant J.-C. 8, (2) utilisé majoritairement en composition de type onguent dans l'huile, accessoirement en encens (une citation) ainsi que médicalement ; (3) chez les Hittites, le terme désigne un arbre à " graines " 9, (4) le bois, les copeaux et peut-être l'exsudat(la traduction de ŠIM fait débat au sein des assyriologues) sont dotés de parfum 10. Le produit est mesuré à la fois par une mesure de contenance, utilisée pour les produits secs et les céréales (ce qui sous-tendrait une forme de poudre ou résine) et par une mesures pondérale (utilisée pour les bois, les copeaux) 11. Le terme a depuis été retrouvé dans les archives d'Ebla avec la mention d'une origine occidentale.

12 CT 22, 247 : 30 ; CT 29, 14 : 13 (lettre paléo-babylonienne, 2e moitié du IIe millénaire av. J.-C.)

13 PBS 2/2, 129 : 14 (médio-babylonien) ; EA 22 iii 32 (Bronze récent, fin du xiv e siècle av. J.-C.).

14 ARM 7, 25 : 3 ; ARM 14 : 5, 17 : 4 ; pour le festival de Šamaš ARM 13 : 4, 39 : 1 ; avec le dét. GI (...)

15 CT 4, 5 : 5 ; KBo. 6/2, p. 42.

16 Avec le déterminatif GIŠ, KAR 72 r. 16 (Namburbi, textes magiques), BMS 22 : 32.

17 Dans une potion AMT 66, 7 : 17 ; Küchler Beitr. pl. 11 iii ; en infusion (avec du jus de grenade) K (...)

7Le produit est utilisé principalement dans la seconde moitié du II e millénaire avant J.-C., mélangé à de l'huile ou un corps gras 12. Il est conditionné dans des " alabastres " ou de petits contenants à parfum dont certains en verre 13. Un de ces contenants avec de l'huile de kanaktu figure dans les cadeaux envoyés par Tušratta (1 380-1 350 av. J.-C.), un roi Mitannien, donc de la Syrie du nord-est, à pharaon. L'huile est utilisée à Mari pour l'onction des personnes et dans les rituels, à Babylone pour verser sur les mains lors d'un banquet dans la première moitié du II e millénaire av. J.-C. 14. On note une indication en fumigation chez les Hittites 15, une indication dans un rituel de magie 16 et plusieurs mentions d'utilisation en médecine en infusion, lavement, onction, pansement ou suppositoire 17.

8Les éléments géographiques (origine occidentale et environnement montagneux) ne sont pas compatibles avec la biologie du genre Boswellia, la source de l'encens-oliban, par ailleurs extrêmement difficile à cultiver dans les parcs et jardins de plaine compte tenu de ses exigences orographiques. En effet, la distribution du genre est cantonnée strictement à la ceinture subsaharienne en Afrique, au domaine somalo-masaï en Afrique orientale et dans la péninsule Arabique ainsi qu'au sud de l'Inde (Fig. 3). Par ailleurs, le genre ne peut pas être qualifié strictement de montagneux, même si on le trouve souvent dans des positions altitudinales de plateaux. En outre, les montagnes, dans les textes suméro-akkadiens désignent très généralement le Taurus, le Liban et l'anti-Liban où le genre n'est pas représenté. Par ailleurs, le bois n'est pas strictement odorant sauf lorsque celui-ci a été blessé.

Fig. 3. Distribution des encensiers ( Boswellia spp., Burseraceae).

9L'Opoponax (Apiaceae), autre attribution proposée, en revanche, peut être d'origine occidentale, l'aire de répartition de certaines espèces incluant la Syrie et le Liban. Cependant, si cette herbacée, par sa taille, a pu être classée dans les arbres dans l'Antiquité, sa résine odorante se situe uniquement dans le collet de la racine et la plante ne peut fournir ni copeaux, ni brindilles.

10Les mentions disponibles s'accordent donc mal avec les deux propositions d'identification et ne sont plus retenues aujourd'hui 18.

19 RA 53, 8 : 37 (medical) ; Ebeling 1950b, p. 9 ; van Beek, 1960.

20 Snell, 1982, p. 234.

21 Artzy, 1994 ; Jasmin, 2005.

11Pour labªnatu, le terme apparaît en babylonien standard (1595-1155 av. J.-C.) comme un terme ouest-sémitique emprunté, avec des utilisations en médical et dans les recettes de parfums 19, mais sans aucun autre élément factuel permettant de le caractériser. Il est possible que le terme ait désigné l'encens-oliban dans les textes du I ermillénaire, mais ŠIM.ḪI.A signifie étymologiquement " substances aromatiques assorties " et apparaît bien dans ce sens dans certains textes de la fin du III e millénaire av. J.-C. 20. On aurait peut-être là un cas de glissement d'une dénomination induit par une nouvelle géographie des échanges et des acteurs et l'apparition connexe de nouvelles matières premières. En effet, le commerce arabique de l'encens-oliban se développe selon les auteurs plutôt à la fin de l'âge du Bronze ou dans les tout débuts de l'âge du Fer 21. La constitution ultérieure de l'empire assyrien auquel les royaumes de la péninsule devront verser tribut ouvre pour l'espace levantin une nouvelle source d'approvisionnement de matières aromatiques, dont au premier chef l'encens-oliban.

12Certains marqueurs biochimiques de l'encens au niveau générique, les acides boswelliques et leurs dérivés, sont connus et conservés dans la longue durée 22. L'état de la recherche permet encore rarement d'identifier l'espèce précise, quoique certains travaux aient pu mettre en évidence des marqueurs permettant de distinguer Boswellia sacra Flück, l'encensier de référence, présent à la fois dans la péninsule arabique et en Afrique orientale, et Boswellia frereana Birdw. 23, un encensier strictement africain. Certains marqueurs permettraient également d'identifier l'encensier indien, Boswellia serrata Roxb. ex Colebr.

13Les analyses archéométriques de résidus archéologiques ne fournissent à ce jour qu'une indication confirmée d'encens-oliban pour l'âge du Bronze. Celui-ci a été détecté en mélange avec des acides gras et de la résine de conifères dans un " vase à onguent " provenant de la tombe de la princesse Sat-mer-Hout à Dashur au Bronze Moyen 24. Ceci indiquerait que l'oliban a pu être utilisé, au moins en Égypte, peut-être de façon occasionnelle, mais dans une composition d'onguent et non en encens.

14Les analyses de résidus sont encore très peu nombreuses dans la péninsule arabique, en Égypte et au Levant pour le I er millénaire av. J.-C. En Égypte, de l'encens oliban a été identifié dans une momie datant du vii e siècle av. J.-C. 25. Les occurrences suivantes fournies par les analyses organiques sont toutes plus tardives : à Qasr Ibrîm, en Nubie, dans une momie de la période post-méroïtique (400-500 apr. J.-C.) et pour des morceaux de matière amorphe retrouvés dans le remplissage d'un cellier de la période tardive (iv e-v e siècles apr. J.-C.) 26. Du bois de Boswellia a également été identifié à Bérénikè en Égypte dans les débuts de la période romaine, attestant d'importations dans la période 27.

15De l'encens-oliban a été identifié pour la péninsule arabique à Qana, Yémen, dans un entrepôt brûlé et dans des échantillons provenant du sanctuaire central 28. A contrario, un travail d'analyse conduit sur du matériel nabatéen n'a pas identifié les marqueurs connus de l'encens et les auteurs proposent comme hypothèse l'utilisation un autre genre dans la famille 29. De même, et bien que beaucoup plus tardif, un travail conduit sur Sharma, port médiéval de l'encens pour la péninsule, a mis en évidence certes de l'encens-oliban, mais également un autre végétal de type copal, probablement tiré une Légumineuse du genre Hymenaea 30.

16Ailleurs, dans le monde romain, l'encens-oliban a été identifié à ce jour en Angleterre dans plusieurs onguents de momification datant de la période romaine tardive (i er-ii e siècles apr. J.-C.) et à Mersea Island Barrow dans un résidu associé à des os calcinés dans une urne funéraire 31.

17Il semble, donc, bien que l'usage de l'oliban comme encens se développe tardivement autour de la Méditerranée à la fin du I er millénaire av. J.-C., voire dans les premiers siècles de notre ère et les attestations fiables d'emploi restent encore occasionnelles.

Fig. 4. Pistacia lentiscus (lentisque, mastic), Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen (List of Koehler Images) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

A, B rameau avec fleur ; C ibid. avec fruit ; 1, 2 fleur ; 3 pollen ; 4, 5 stigmate et style ; 6 fruit ; 7, 8 ovaire ; 9 embryon.

18Le genre comprend plusieurs espèces productrices de résine dont deux circum-méditerranéennes ( Pistacia lentiscus L., le lentisque et P. terebinthus L., le térébinthe), une plus septentrionale ( P. atlantica Desf., le pistachier de l'Atlas), distribuée dans la zone irano-touranienne du Levant nord jusqu'en Inde, et une, P. khinjuk Stocks, dont la répartition couvre le Nord de l'Égypte jusqu'au Sinaï, la Jordanie, la Syrie et le sud-est de la Turquie.

19Le térébinthe sensu lato a été identifié en assyrien sous le terme buṭnu, caractérisé par le déterminatif GIŠ (arbre/bois) 32.

33 Iraq 14, 33 : 43, Assurnasirpal II (884-859 av. J.-C.).

34 4R 56 iii 37 (Lamaštu), dupl. KAR 239 ii 13.

35 Melena, 1976, p. 180-183 ; 1983, p. 91 ; contra Foster, 1977, p. 39-40.

36 Loret, 1949, 1892, p. 97-98.

37 Vartavan, 2007.

20Le buṭnu, avec d'autres arbres exotiques, prospère à l'âge du Fer dans les parcs royaux assyriens 33 ; une montagne du térébinthe apparaît dans un texte légendaire 34. La plante est utilisée comme bois d'œuvre en parallèle avec d'autres bois précieux exotiques pour la construction des palais et des temples. Le terme a également été reconnu, mais avec des débats, à Ugarit. En Crète mycénienne, le térébinthe serait cité en linéaire B sous ki-ta-no, mais les indications semblent enregistrer un usage pour les fruits et l'interprétation est débattue 35. Le terme susceptible de désigner le térébinthe n'a pas été reconnu en Égypte, mais en son temps Loret avait proposé que le senter (traduit couramment par encens) désigne en fait ce végétal 36, bien que ceci soit toujours contesté 37. Aucune indication textuelle pour ces identifications ne le présente dans une utilisation en encens.

38 Stern et al., 2003 ; Modugno et al., 2006.

39 McGovern et al., 2009 ; Mizzoni et Cesaro, 2007 (dans une " plumpekanne " étrusque) ; Mc Govern et (...)

40 Viellescazes et Coen, 1993 ; Colombini et al., 2009 ; Brettell et al., 2015.

41 Colombini et al., 2000 ; Buckley et al., 2004 ; Charrié-Duhaut et al., 2007 ; Nicholson et al., 201 (...)

42 Pour la présence dans la cargaison de l'épave d'Ulu Burun au Bronze Récent, voir Pulak 2001 avec ré (...)

43 Serpico et White, 2000 ; Stern et al.,2003 ; Serpico, 2003 ; Serpico et al.,2003 ; Smith et al.,(...)

44 Beck et al., 2008, p. 19 : pur dans un bol conique du site d'Apodoulou au Minoen Moyen II (env. 190 (...)

21La résine de térébinthe est aujourd'hui bien attestée régionalement pour l'âge du Bronze en encens 38, peut-être dans du vin 39, dans des préparations d'onguents égyptiens, étrusques et romains 40, dans les rituels d'embaumement égyptiens et romains 41 et comme objet de commerce (Fig. 5) 42. Le Levant apparaît clairement comme une zone de production à la fin de l'âge du Bronze avec des exportations en Égypte 43. Des indications de résine de Pistacia ont également été identifiées en Crète pour la période 44.

Fig. 5. Encens Pistacia sp., épave d'Ulu Burun.

©Élisabeth Dodinet.

22On a donc un paradoxe. Les Pistacia sont très bien attestés dans les restes carpologiques et organiques (sous la forme de résine), mais peu ou pas reconnus dans les attestations des sources littéraires avant Théophraste. Les mentions d'utilisation de la résine, pourtant bien attestée par l'archéométrie sur toute la région et de façon plus systématique et régulière que l'encens-oliban, sont absentes de ces sources si l'on conserve l'identification des différents termes étudiés à l'encens-oliban. Au vu des apports des analyses organiques, on peut proposer que les désignations aient représenté ou couvert les produits de Pistacia pendant une grande partie de la période. L'encens-oliban serait venu progressivement au cours du I er millénaire av. J.-C. s'intégrer dans la désignation avec les changements des routes et des acteurs du commerce de matières premières.

23Par ailleurs, il est possible et même probable que dans les sources anciennes moyen-orientales, le terme d'encens ait en fait recouvert un groupe de sources végétales aptes à être brûlées. L'étude des notations sur les végétaux en Mésopotamie et sur la côte levantine pour les âges du Bronze et les débuts de l'âge du Fer suggère l'existence de groupements du type de ceux mis en évidence par l'ethnobiologie. Cette discipline documente pour de nombreuses sociétés contemporaines dépourvues de sources écrites l'existence de classifications - au sens de systèmes d'organisation et de hiérarchisation - des éléments naturels dont les végétaux 45. Ces systèmes présentent plusieurs caractéristiques par rapport au système linnéen adopté depuis le xviii e siècle. Certaines de ces caractéristiques peuvent avoir une pertinence dans l'interprétation des mentions des textes antiques : (1) les groupements sont généralement emmenés par un chef de file, un végétal majeur (2) ils sont organisés sur la base d'éléments perceptibles : morphologie, géographie, couleur, usage, parfum... (3) partant, un groupement peut inclure des taxons (au sens d'entités biologiques) qui dans la classification linnéenne appartiennent à des espèces, des genres ou familles différents, et (4) à l'inverse, une même espèce peut être surdifférenciée, c'est-à-dire se retrouver sous plusieurs dénominations en fonctions de considérations d'allure, de biotope ou de caractéristiques perceptibles.

24Il existe ainsi dans les textes levantins de l'âge du Bronze et du Fer un groupement de matières premières aromatiques caractérisées par le déterminatif ŠIM qui a donné lieu à diverses interprétations. Il a pu être dans le passé rendu par " résine ", mais les auteurs récents ont mis en évidence l'existence d'un terme spécifique pour l'exsudat ou résine (A.KAL, ḫilu) à partir du babylonien ancien. Par ailleurs, l'analyse fine des occurrences du déterminatif montre qu'il peut être utilisé pour des produits non strictement aromatiques, d'une part, et que les végétaux aromatiques ne sont pas systématiquement désignés avec ce déterminatif 46. Le déterminatif marquerait, ainsi, un groupement de périmètre variable, identifié par les caractéristiques d'emploi du produit plus que par sa nature même. Comme le souligne N. Baum dans son travail sur l'Égypte ptolémaïque : " La botanique de l'Égypte antique devrait être étudiée avec, pour toile de fond, l'ensemble des connaissances et des croyances qui ont été, au fil des siècles, combinées par les premiers intéressés, les Égyptiens eux-mêmes pour ordonner les rapports entre les éléments constitutifs du monde végétal, et qui semblent bien avoir été érigées, au moins en partie, en système. " 47. Partant de cette hypothèse, l'auteur utilise les ressources écrites (essentiellement les descriptions contenues dans les inscriptions des laboratoires ptolémaïques du temple d'Horus à Edfou et de celui de Repyt à Ouennina), iconographiques et archéologiques en les confrontant aux données actuelles botaniques et ethnobotaniques, pour cerner les sources végétales probables ou possibles incluses dans les groupements. Cette démarche lui a permis de mettre en évidence l'existence sous une même dénomination de groupements trans-génériques qui incluaient par exemple pour l'encens- senter ( sntr) des sources végétales appartenant à des familles (Burseraceae et Anacardiaceae) et des genres ( Pistacia, Boswellia, Commiphora) différents. Elle propose, de même, pour la substance antyi ( ntwy) - souvent interprétée comme " myrrhe " - pour lesquelles les inscriptions du laboratoire d'Edfou enregistrent seize sortes caractérisées par des éléments morphologiques (aspect externe, couleur...) ou fonctionnels (usages), des identifications à trois genres de Burseraceae Boswellia, Commiphora et Canarium 48.

25Le sumérien (ŠE.)GIŠ.Ì, šamaššamū en akkadien, sa-sa-ma en linéaire B, est traditionnellement identifié au sésame (Fig. 6) et présenté comme la source de l'huile par excellence des compositions aromatiques (parfums et onguents).

Fig. 6. Sesamum indicum (sésame), Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen (List of Koehler Images) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

A racine, B rameau fleuri ; 1, 2 fleur ; 3, 4 stigmate et style, 5, 6 capsule ; 7, 8, 9, 10 : graine (différentes variétés) ; 11 schéma floral.

26C'est d'après les auteurs du CAD 49, la source principale d'huile en Mésopotamie. En Sumérien, še.giš.ì signifie littéralement " le grain de la plante[-arbre] à huile " 50.

27Elle est plantée dès la période paléo-babylonienne 51, apparemment comme une culture d'été 52 et avec un trempage préalable des graines 53. C'est une culture irriguée 54. Le rendement est de 1/5 e ou 1/6 e 55. Pour la récolter à Mari, on arrache le plant entier 56. La plante et/ou le grain est battu sur une aire 57. Le grain (?) est ensuite " nettoyé " / trié ou pas 58, broyé 59, grillé puis écrasé dans un mortier 60 et, enfin, pressé (il faut respecter un délai de 10 jours) 61.

62 CH § 49 : 22 ; Thompson, 1900, p. 196 : 7 ; ZA 52, 244 : 39, babylonien standard (v. 1595-1155 av. (...)

65 CT 52, 104 : 28, paléo-babylonien.

66 Nbn 113 : 4.

28C'est une denrée de base. Elle apparaît au même rang que l'orge dans un contrat juridique, des textes économiques et divers textes 62, et peut être cultivée avec celui-ci ou avec l'orge et les lentilles (?) 63 ; elle est aussi associée aux dattes 64. Dans les approvisionnements, elle est citée au même niveau que l'orge et les céréales 65 et dans les rations de subsistance, elle est à fournir annuellement (avec de la laine) ainsi que le pain et la bière (mais ces derniers journellement) 66.

29C'est un symbole de prospérité " de sorte que l'huile ( šamnu) ne devienne pas chère dans mon pays et que šamaššamū puisse être acheté au même prix que l'orge " 67. En babylonien tardif, elle figure dans un contrat de culture après les céréales et les légumineuses et avant kasû et les Alliacées 68.

69 TuM NF 5, 24 : 1, médio-babylonien (1595-1155 av. J.-C.) ; KAJ 299 : 1 et 7, médio-assyrien (xiv e-x (...)

70 Waterman Bus. Doc 53 : 12, une seule mention.

71 OBT Tell Rimah 23 : 13.

72 HSS 15, 247 : 2.

73 PBS 8/2, 221 : 1, pour une servante ; VAS 16, 102 : 19 ; UCP 9, 340, n° 15 : 13, parallèle ibid. 33 (...)

74 KUB 4, 49 iii 1.

30Elle est apportée comme matière première pour les presseurs d'huile 69. La plante fournit une huile de première qualité 70 ou " huile fine " (ou douce) 71, adaptée pour les nourrissons 72, utilisée pour les onctions 73 ou dans un baume pour panser les plaies 74.

75 ARMT 12, 307 : 9.

76 PSBA 40 pl. 7 r. 5 et dupl. Combe Sin p. 124 Si. 18 r. 7 (rituel).

31Le produit est clairement alimentaire. Dans un banquet royal à Mari, il apparaît en fin de liste avec le miel, le beurre clarifié et un terme indiquant un corps gras - huile, graisse animale ou crème ( šamnu / Ì.GIŠ) 75. Il peut être consommé en gâteau ou en pain 76.

32Il est utilisé occasionnellement en encens dans les rituels 77 et occasionnellement livré à un atelier de parfum 78. Il fait l'objet d'un commerce à Babylone " le chef des marchands est envoyé à Babylone avec 1800 gur d'orge pour du š " 79 ; son résidu peut être utilisé comme médicament 80.

33Chez les Hittites, c'est un akkadogramme, attestant d'une matière première arrivée par Sumer et Akkad 81.

34La similarité du mot avec le Sémitique smsm et le Grec sesamum a conduit de nombreux chercheurs à proposer très tôt le sésame comme identification. F. R. Kraus 82 et K. Butz 83 soutiennent l'identification partiellement sur la base de l'étymologie et partiellement sur la terminologie technique utilisée pour les semis ( sapānu) et la récolte ( nasāḫu), mais ces termes ne sont pas suffisamment spécifiques pour être attribués à une espèce. L'élément le plus probant en faveur du sésame, selon ces auteurs, serait l'attribution du qualificatif de " blanc ", mais celui-ci se situe dans un contexte tardif néo-babylonien (626-539 av. J.-C.). L'absence de qualificatif de couleur dans les périodes antérieures ne peut être retenue comme argument. En effet, les éléments fournis par l'ethnobiologie montrent qu'une plante de référence connue des locuteurs se passe de description et, en tout état de cause, les plantes citées dans les textes moyen-orientaux des périodes anciennes ne sont que rarement décrites ou caractérisées. Il faut noter que dans les textes on peut souvent hésiter sur la référence (grains ou huile), mais dans les rations, šamaššamū figure bien à côté de l'huile ( šamnum). Enfin, le terme suméro-akkadien est affecté du déterminatif GIŠ, le déterminatif des arbres et du bois et la traduction littérale du terme serait le (grain) de l'arbre-huile, ce qui surprend appliqué à une herbacée comme le sésame.Il convient de noter également l'emploi très fréquent (en fait dans la plupart des attestations) du pluriel sans qu'une explication satisfaisante puisse être proposée.

84 Bedigian, 2004.

85 Charles, 1993.

86 Zohary et Hopf, 2000, p. 141 ; Ertuğ, 2000, n. 9, p. 174.

87 Vartavan et Asensi-Amoros, 1997, p. 237-238.

88 Zech-Matterne et al., 2015, avec revue des occurrences à date en Asie et en Méditerranée.

35Le sésame n'est bien attesté par l'archéobotanique que vers la fin du Bronze récent (xiii e siècle av. J.-C.) en Syrie du Nord 84 et encore plus tardivement en Grèce. Une seule attestation est à ce jour enregistrée pour l'Irak ou l'espace assyrien avant la période sassanide, avec 15 graines trouvées dans un contexte daté de 2 500-2 100 av. J.-C. à Abu-Salabikh 85, mais sur lesquelles les chercheurs restent prudents 86. Des occurrences sporadiques sont également connues en Égypte depuis le pré-dynastique, bien que les attestations ne s'y multiplient qu'à partir de la période ptolémaïque 87. Même dans la période romaine, les occurrences restent rares et se concentrent dans les ports 88.

36L'hypothèse d'une substitution, le sésame prenant le nom et la place d'une oléagineuse employée précédemment, par exemple au Levant, le lin ou le carthame ou pour la Grèce du Nord, la cameline, a été émise par plusieurs auteurs 89. L'ethnobotanique a d'ailleurs fourni de nombreux exemples de glissement des dénominations, une plante, généralement introduite, prenant le nom d'une plante locale dont elle partage certaines caractéristiques ou la niche d'utilisation 90. De fait, et bien que le sujet reste chaudement débattu et que l'hypothèse du sésame garde ses fervents avocats 91, le CAD propose l'interprétation du lin en s'appuyant l'abondance des restes de la plante dans les contextes moyen-orientaux 92. Les auteurs donnent également à l'appui de leur hypothèse les temps entre le semis et la récolte compatible avec ceux du lin.

37On observe, effectivement, au Proche Orient une transformation des schémas agricoles dans la période du Bronze Récent avec des attestations de nouvelles cultures (coton, grenade, concombre) exigeant de nouvelles techniques culturales comme le sésame - plante tropicale gélive demandant une culture d'été au Proche-Orient - qui trouve bien sa place dans ce cortège 93. S. Riehl et ses co-auteurs 94 soulignent que les données archéobotaniques encore sporadiques ne permettent pas clairement de déterminer si le sésame est déjà suffisamment largement cultivé pour être devenu une source d'huile, mais notent que globalement les attestations de lin semblent moins communes dans la période du Bronze Récent / Fer que dans les périodes précédentes, pointant un phénomène de substitution croissante entre les deux plantes. Les défenseurs du sésame notent cependant que le lin est identifié par ailleurs sous numun gu " graine de lin/fil " (donc pour son emploi textile) et que les tenanciers des champs de lin et des champs de šamaššamū sont bien distingués dans les sources 95.

96 Miller in Schwartz et al., 2000, p. 442 et tableau 2, p. 440 ; van Zeist, 1999, p. 113, tableau 1 p (...)

97 Marinova et Riehl, 2009.

98 Haldane Ward, 1990, p. 59.

38Le carthame ( Carthamus tinctorius L., Asteraceae) constituerait un second candidat potentiel. Ses graines peuvent fournir une huile, la matière tinctoriale étant elle tirée du capitule. Le carthame a été retrouvé à la fois sous la forme de capitules et de semences, sur plusieurs sites du Bronze ancien (vers 3 000 av. J.-C.) et moyen (fin III e et première moitié du II e millénaires av. J.-C.) en Syrie septentrionale et méridionale 96 avec une distribution complémentaire de celle du lin, suggérant son utilisation en huile 97. La présence de capitules de carthame dans la cargaison de l'épave d'Ulu Burun pourrait confirmer une utilisation avec un commerce actif encore à la fin de l'âge du Bronze 98. Son utilisation possible à la fois en huile ou pour teinter en ferait un candidat à considérer dans les matières premières des préparations aromatiques.

39Cette plante aurait le mérite de proposer une alternative à l'épineux débat sur le lin, au moins pour les zones du Levant occidental. On aurait donc là la possibilité d'un transfert de nom, entre des plantes oléagineuses éventuellement différentes selon les régions et les périodes, par un phénomène par ailleurs bien documenté en ethnobiologie. Des processus similaires de substitution pourraient également être à l'œuvre pour un produit murr, traduit traditionnellement par la myrrhe, mais donné comme un produit d'origine occidentale dans les attestations levantines 99.

40En fait, dans l'interprétation des sources antiques, avant les premiers traités classiques (Théophraste, puis Dioscoride et Pline), le chercheur dispose de peu de clefs pour déchiffrer l'organisation sous-jacente du monde végétal qui préside aux dénominations. On se heurte, par ailleurs, pour nombre de noms cités, à une absence ou une pauvreté d'éléments contextuels (biotope, description, éléments morphologiques...) permettant de mieux cerner le végétal désigné. Même dans les textes classiques, les indications sont parfois insuffisantes pour poser une détermination botanique fiable (au sens de l'espèce linnéenne) et une seule. Cependant, l'analyse serrée des mentions disponibles confrontée aux connaissances actuelles sur les espèces et aux découvertes des nouvelles disciplines archéologiques permet de pondérer les attributions comme le montre l'exemple de l'encens.

41Par ailleurs, les identifications de végétaux opérées à partir d'indications figurant dans les textes tardifs, plus riches et plus explicites, notamment les textes et les listes lexicales néo-assyriens, doivent être prises avec prudence, d'autant que les parallèles étymologiques sont empruntés, le plus souvent, à des langues très postérieures (Grec, Hébreu, Arabe, Syriaque...). Cette démarche " régressive " (l'interprétation de l'identité d'un végétal à partir de textes et de termes tardifs) sous-tend qu'un nom aurait désigné, sur un vaste espace géographique, la même plante sur la longue durée. Ce postulat demande à être solidement étayé, au cas par cas, en le confrontant aux éléments fournis par les disciplines de l'archéobotanique et les apports des analyses organiques comme le montre l'exemple du sésame.

42Enfin, il convient de se méfier de la quête d'identification d'une espèce précise, au sens linnéen du terme, sous une dénomination antique. En fait, il faut faire l'hypothèse de travail que le postulat un nom égal une espèce au sens linnéen moderne du terme, est probablement inopérant pour l'Antiquité, et admettre une certaine plasticité géographique des dénominations dans l'espace et dans le temps.
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AASOR : Annual of the American School(s) of Oriental Research (in Jerusalem) , New Haven-Cambridge, Mass. 1919-1920

ABL : Assyrian and Babylonian Letters belonging to the Kouyunjik collections of the British Museum par R.F. Harper, The decennial publications second series, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1864-1914.

AfO : Archiv für Orientforschung (AfO)/Institut für Orientalistik , Graz, 1926-2011.

ARM : Archives royales de Mari (1-10 = TCL 22-31 ; 14 , 18, 19, 21 = Textes cunéiformes de Mari 1-3, 5), (Paris 1950 sqq.).

ARMT : Archives royales de Mari, textes translittérés et traduits.

CAD : The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental University of Chicago , Chicago, 1956 . = Oppenheim , A. L., Reiner , E. et Biggs , R. D., 1971 et 1992, The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the university of Chicago , vol. 8, K (4 e éd., 2008) et vol. 9, L (3 e éd., 1992) ; Reiner , E., Biggs , R. D. et Roth , M. T., 1989, The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the university of Chicago (Civil, M., Gelb, J., Oppenheim, A. L. et Reiner, E., dir.), vol. 17, Š-shin, 1 (2 e ed. 2004). Chicago, IL, Glückstadt, Allemagne, Oriental Institute and J. J. Augustin Verlagsbuchhandlung.

Camb. : Inschriften von Cambyses , König von Babylon (529-521 v. CHR.) (= BT 8-9, 1890). = Strassmaier , J. N., 1889, Inschriften von Nabonidus, König von Babylon 555-538 (v. CHR.) von den Tontafeln des Britischen Museums copiert und autographiert (= BT 1-4) Leipzig, Eduard Pfeiffer.

CH : Codex Hammurabi = Bergmann, E. S. J., 1953, Codex Hammurabi, Testus Primigenius, editio Tertia, Rome, Pontificum Institutum Biblicum (autographie).

Combe Sin : Histoire du culte de Sin en Babylonie et en Assyrie. = Combe, E., 1908, Histoire du culte de Sin en Babylonie et en Assyrie, Paris, Geuthner.

CT : Cuneiform texts from Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum , Londres, 1896

EA : Die El-Amarna-Tafeln . = Knudtzon , J. A. (éd.), 1915, Die El-Amarna-Tafeln mit Einleitung und Erlaüterungen, Anmerkungen und Register de O. Weber et E. Ebeling (= VAB 2), Leipzig, J.C. Hinrichs'sche Buchhandlung, 2 vol. (vol. 1. Die Texte, vol. 2. Anmerkungen und Register). Pour une traduction en français (mais sans autographie) voir Les Lettres d'El-Amarna. Correspondance diplomatique du pharaon, traduction de W. L. Moran avec la collaboration de V. Haas et G. Wilhem. Traduction française de D. Collon et H. Cazelles, 1987, Paris, Littératures du Proche-Orient, éd. du Cerf.

Ebeling KMI : Die akkadische Gebetsserie . = Ebeling , E., 1953, Die akkadische Gebetsserie "Handerhebung" (= VIO, Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Orientforschung , Berlin, 20), Berlin, Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Institut für Otientforschung, 20.

Grant Smith College = Grant , E., 1918, Cuneiform documents in the Smith College Library, Biblical and Kindred Studies n° 1 , Haverford, Pennsylvania.

KAV : Keilschrifttexte aus Assur verschiedenen Inhalts . = Schroeder , O., 1920, Keilschrifttexte aus Assur verschiedenen Inhalts autographie , in Ausgrabungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft in Assur , E : Inschriften, III, F. Delitzch, Leipzig, J. C. Hinrichs'sche Bucchandlung.

Lyon Sar. : Keilschrifttexte Sargon's Königs von Assyrien... = Lyon, D. G., 1883, Keilschrifttexte Sargon's Königs von Assyrien (722-705 v. Chr.) : nach den Originalen / neu herausgegeben umschrieben, übersetzt und erklärt, Leipzig, J. C. Hinrichs'sche Buchhandlung.

MDP : Mémoires de la Délégation en Perse, Paris, 1900 sqq. ; Bd. 29, 1943 sqq.

Nbn : Inschriften von Nabonidus, König von Babylon (= BT 1-4, Leipzig, 1889). = Strassmaier, J. N., 1890, Inschriften von Cambyses, König von Babylon (529-521 v. CHR.) von den Tontafeln des Britischen Museums copiert und autographiert (= BT 8-9, 1890), Leipzig, Eduard Pfeiffer.

PSBA : Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology , Londres, Society of Biblical Archaeology, 1879-1918.

RA : Revue d'Assyriologie et d'Archéologie Orientale, Paris, 1886 sqq.

SI. : numéros de terrain donnés aux tablettes exhumées à Sippar dans les collections des Musées archéologiques (Istanbul).

TCL : Textes cunéiformes du Louvre, Musée du Louvre, Département des Antiquités Orientales, Paris, Geuthner, 1910 sqq.

TLB : Tabulae Cuneiformes a F.M.Th. de Liagre Böhl collectae , Leidae Conservatae , Leiden, Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, 1954 .

T U M NF : TUM Texte und Materialien der Frau Professor Hilprecht Collection of Babylonian Antiquities im Eigentum der Universität Jena , Band 1-5, Neue Folge, Berlin, Akademie-Verlag, 1937-1976.

VAS : Vorderasiatische Schriftdenkmaler der Koniglichen Museen zu Berlin , Leipzig, 1907-1917.

Waterman Bus. Doc : Business Documents of the Hammurapi Period . = Waterman , L., 1916, Business Documents of the Hammurapi Period from the British Museum , Londres, Luzac.

ZA : Zeitschrift für Assyriologie = Zeifrichrift für Assyriologie und verwandte Gebiete (1886-août 1938) , suivi de Zeifrichrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie , 1939 .

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Ertuğ , F., 2000, Linseed Oil and Oil Mills in Central Turkey Flax/ and , Important Oil Plants ofAnatolia, Anatolian Studies , 50, p. 171-185.

Jasmin, M., 2005, Les conditions d'émergence de la route de l'encens à la fin du II e millénaire avant notre ère, Syria, 82, p. 49-62.

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Limet, H., 1978, Pharmacopée et parfumerie sumériennes, Revue d'histoire de la pharmacie, 238, p. 147-159.

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7 Loret, 1949.

20 Snell, 1982, p. 234.

21 Artzy, 1994 ; Jasmin, 2005.

25 Archier et Vieillescazes, 2000.

27 Sidebothan et Zych, 2010.

36 Loret, 1949, 1892, p. 97-98.

37 Vartavan, 2007.

45 Berlin, 1992, p. 31-35.

46 Middeke-Conlin, 2014.

50 Civil, 1975, p. 141, n. 34.

56 ARM 3, 34 : 13.

57 TIM 4, 33 : 2.

66 Nbn 113 : 4.

67 Lyon Sar. 7 : 41.

68 Augapfel 1917, p. 74 (tableau).

71 OBT Tell Rimah 23 : 13.

72 HSS 15, 247 : 2.

75 ARMT 12, 307 : 9.

84 Bedigian, 2004.

85 Charles, 1993.

92 Helbaek, 1966, 2, p. 618.

93 Riehl et Nesbitt, 2003.

95 Watson, 2004, p. 128.

97 Marinova et Riehl, 2009.

98 Haldane Ward, 1990, p. 59.

99 Middeke-Conlin, 2008, p. 18.
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The Stench of Miasma and The Fragrance of Daffodils Reconstructi

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Sourcebook for Ancient Mesopotamian Medicine

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Sourcebook for Ancient Mesopotamian Medicine

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1 Tappūtī-bēlat-ekalle (fl. 1200 BCE): A cuneiform tablet on Middle Assyrian perfumery (c. 1200 BCE) A cuneiform tablet on Middle Assyrian perfumery (c. 1200 BCE) from Women in the History of Science: A sourcebook on JSTOR

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Eduardo A. Escobar, Tappūtī-bēlat-ekalle (fl. 1200 BCE):, Women in the History of Science, pp. 15-22

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Cuneiform Texts: What are Assyro-Babylonian Chemical Texts?

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Cuneiform Texts: What are Assyro-Babylonian Chemical Texts?

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Cuneiform texts with technical procedures for making colored glass, perfumes, dyeing wool, tanning leather, and metal patination, constitute among the earliest known textual records in the history of chemistry. Within the context of AlchemEast, cuneiform procedures occupy a compelling corpus of texts that engender both technological and important historiographical considerations that consider the presumed origins of ancient alchemy. What follows offers a selection of original texts from ancient Mesopotamia that have been characterized as "alchemical" by early scholars in the field of Assyriology and Ancient Studies. This brief survey should not be read as a collection of proto-Alchemical texts, but rather, as procedures written in the Akkadian language using the cuneiform script which span a period of almost a full millennium between the late second millennium and the late first millennium BCE. As such, despite the standardized nature of the procedural employed by the texts, it is pivotal to keep in mind the major changes-social, political, technological, and epistemic-within which these procedures were first codified. Read as original documents, the procedures below offer a glimpse at the way these various cultures, both Assyrian and Babylonian, codified and transmitted texts that dealt with making alterations to the material world: texts we can properly call "technological." Moreover, an always compelling element in the intellectual inheritance of these texts, is that later cultures considered the Babylonians, later known as Chaldeans, or magii, as the originators of a hermetic alchemical tradition in the ancient Middle East. As historians of science we must, therefore, contend with two sets of historical sources. On the one hand, there are the original cuneiform technical procedures, and the content and social context preserved therein. On the other hand, there is the later textual record of what was said about the chemical arts in ancient Mesopotamia.

To get a sense of the types of chemical recipes preserved from the ancient Middle East, we will examine a few of the key texts that come from the territory of ancient Assyrian, in the north of modern-day Iraq, between the years 1300-650 BCE, as well as a single unprovenanced wool dye recipe from the 5th century BCE attributed to the city of Sippar in Babylonia (southern Iraq).

Middle Assyrian Perfume Recipes and the First Perfumer (13th century BCE)

The first set of recipes is a small corpus of perfume recipes, which describe a process of producing aromatic oil infusions over a period of several months. KAR 140 is a perfume recipe from the Middle Assyrian period (13th century BCE); a well-preserved section of the tablet (rev. i 7-25) describes the use of various cooking vessels and an aromatic we understand to be a type of sweet myrrh resin called perṣaduḫḫu:

In pouring for the 13th time, you gather the oil. You wipe clean the diqāru-vessel. You heat up the liquid mixture. You then wash a ḫarû-vessel, and pour (the mixture) into the ḫarû-vessel. You pour 2 cupfuls of "knots of perṣaduḫḫu-aromatic" into the interior (of the harû-vessel). (The mixture) is to sit all day. During the evening, you pour it into into an agannu-vat. You place ≈30 litres (3 seahs) of perṣaduḫḫu-aromatics into the interior (of the agannu-vat). It is to macerate overnight. At sunrise, you wipe clean the diqāru-vessel. You pour into the diqāru-vessel the aromatics that have softened within the agannu-vessel and have macerated overnight. You ignite a fire beneath the diqāru-vessel, and the aromatics, which have become hot, you pour (their) oil into the diqāru-vessel. You stir it, and wipe it clean. You remove the bulû-wood, but do not remove the coal. You raise its flame high. The oil-mixture will expel froth. You wipe down the interior of the diqāru-vessel with a šuḫattu-cloth. You stir (the mixture) and cover it up. (After the mixture) sits in its diqāru-vessel for 4 days, you re-ignite its flame in the morning and you stir it. You should not make the fire strong.

There are six known perfume recipes from Assur, and each describes a similar process of heat extraction (collecting and cooking the aromatics in large basins); maceration (allowing plant matter and aromatics to rest in water for extended periods of time); and refinement by means of filtration. Perfume makers employed a range of instruments and vessels to process aromatic oils. A large container called a diqāru-vessel served as the primary container for heating large quantities of aromatics. During this initial phase of heat infusion, up to 20 litres of plants and aromatics were processed before being transferred into a secondary filtering container called a harû. Thereafter, the oil mixture was allowed to macerate overnight before a third stage of refinement took place by filtering the oil through a fine cloth called sūnu. Variations of these phases are repeated multiple times to achieve a fine quality perfume. The highest quality Assyrian perfumes are named according to their level of refinement. After 20 filtrations one produces a grade of perfume suitable for trade (literally: 'for the road'); the finest quality scented oil, however, is achieved after weeks of refinement and 40 filtrations, and was described as "fit for a king." This is the product attributed to the expertise of Tappūtī-Bēlat-Ekalle more than three millennia ago, as found in text :

Perfume-making recipe for ≈20 litres (2 seahs) of processed cane oil, fit for a king, according to the mouth of Tappūtī-Bēlat-Ekalle, the perfume-maker: month Muhur-ilani on the 20th day; the eponymate of Šunu-qardu, the chief cupbearer.

Historical context is key to considering the function of the recipes. The recipes hail from the city of Assur, during a formative period of political expansion ca. 1300 BCE and attest to ingredients that were carefully curated and guarded by elite administrators-and women known by the title muraqqītu, "expert in aromatics." To read more about this period of history and the perfume recipe attributed to Tapputti, see this open source publication [].

Neo-Assyrian Glassmaking Recipes (7th century BCE)

The city of Nineveh during the 7th century BCE was home to one of the great centers of learning in the ancient Middle East, the so-called Library of Ashurbanipal. Here, we find a corpus of glassmaking recipes - catalogued by scribes under the series title "The Doors of the Kiln" - which describe the production of colored glass. The procedures describe the making of a 4-chambered kiln, the use of silicates, halophytic plant ashes, and copper oxides, in order to achieve a range of colored glass. The uses of glass in the ancient Middle East ranged from luxury uses to medical and ritual healing; the recipes themselves, which have been known for a century, do not describe the function of the vitreous products, but go into depth about how to achieve the desired colors.

Moreover, the texts, translated here , are filled with both ritual and chemical knowledge, as well as displays of scribal hermeneutics that demonstrate the extent to which cuneiform scribes could encode multiple layers of meaning within what may at first appear to be a straightforward set of practical instructions. Straightforward, however, they are not. Because the cuneiform script is polyvalent - one sign can mean many things - for example, in the following passage with ritual instructions which describe the type of wood used to fire the glassmaking kiln, as well as the time of year during which to do it:

... qurū-wood that have no knots on the surface, bound up with an apu-leather strap that you cut in the month of Abu, these logs should go into the bottom of the kūru-kiln.

Above, is a standard translation of the text. Below, a translation of the same passage, taking into account the multivalence of the cuneiform script, demonstrating that there is more than a single way to read the text:

"kiln"-wood ( qurū) logs with no knots on the surface, bound up with the "father"-strap ( abu), the logs that you cut in the "month of fire"-also called the month of the father ( Abu) - these are the logs that should go into the bottom of the kiln.

In the alchemical tradition, Decknamen - "hidden names" - are employed in recipes in order to occult ingredients, or add layers of meaning and secrecy to a chemical procedure. In alphabetic scripts like Greek, Syriac, or Arabic, secrecy is achieved through metaphor, codenames, and literary allusion. Using the cuneiform script, in contrast, Assyrian scholars could write a presumably straightforward recipe with a secret layer of meaning. Relatedly, an important contextual element of these 7th century glassmaking recipes is that they were written by highly literate scribes and were dedicated to the god of scribal knowledge: Nabu. Thus, chemical and technological expertise was from this early period, closely linked to a linguistic scholarly tradition of secrecy, allusion, metaphor, and divine knowledge.

and there are some recent publications on the glassmaking recipes.

Neo-Babylonian Wool Dye Recipe (5th century BCE)

A single tablet with a small collection of recipes for dyeing wool - BM 62788 - comes from the region of Babylonia (southern Iraq) during the 5th century BCE. The recipes describe a process whereby plant and mineral-based dyes are used to produce various luxury colors, including a purple called argamannu. The dyeing process begins with the preparation of the wool, which is heated in water with a corresponding quantity of alum, which functioned as the mordant. The color, as in the case below, is produced from the combination of a pulverized vegetable dye and mineral rich waters which are then heated again over a fire. Thus, in BM rev. 11'-13':

you take natural wool and alum and weigh them in equal parts, you heat it (the mixture) in water over a fire until the liquid mixture has been exhausted; the pulverized ḫathuru, and the natural wool, you weigh them in equal parts, you heat the mixture in regular water and "water of clay" and heat it over a fire. You pull it out: purple- argamannu

An important dimension of the wool recipes is their cultural context. Despite the lack of provenance for the text, there is a great deal of contemporaneous administrative evidence documenting the material preparations for a religious festival called Lubuštu, during which the images (statues) of the Babylonian gods would be clothed with fresh or re-dyed colored garments. Unidentified vegetable dyes, like ḫathuru above, are mentioned in administrative texts with corresponding quantities of alum. These ingredients were closely monitored by the Neo Babylonian temples. This is especially true of the purple- argamannu color, which stood as a symbol of divine royalty.

A compelling question regarding the recipes is their proximity to Mediterranean traditions of using Murex - the Tyrian purple extracted from snails - which was known to be among the rarest of colors. While there is no clear evidence of using murex in these texts, the fragmentary sections do describe the use of open-air processes for producing variations in color, not unlike similar dye processes known from the Levant that employed murex. What is clear is that the recipes that are preserved provide an element of choice, such that if a particular ingredient was unavailable, there were multiple ways to achieve a desired color. In this regard, this single tablet may be situated as an early exemplar of documenting alternative ingredients, a well-attested practice in the history of chemical recipes. For a recent open access discussion of this recipe, see this open source publication [].

Text and images Eduardo A. Escobar

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Cuneiform texts with technical procedures for making colored glass, perfumes, dyeing wool, tanning leather, and metal patination, constitute among the earliest known textual records in the history of chemistry. Within the context of AlchemEast, cuneiform procedures occupy a compelling corpus of texts that engender both technological and important historiographical considerations that consider the presumed origins of ancient alchemy.

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The Art of Ancient Mesopotamian Technical; Good section on the limits of translations

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The Art of Ancient Mesopotamian Technical; Good section on the limits of translations

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Manuals and Letters: The Origins of Instructional

Writing

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Escobar's 2020 translation of Tapputi's recipe KAR 220 from ORACC

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Escobar's 2020 translation of Tapputi's recipe KAR 220 from ORACC

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Back to the Cedar Forest: The beginning and end of Tablet V of the Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgameš

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Back to the Cedar Forest: The beginning and end of Tablet V of the Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgameš

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Tablets in cuneiform script contain the oldest extant records of the Mesopotamian civilisation's knowledge of astronomy. They show us that celestial phenomena, especially as a potential source of omens, were already being studied at the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C. People knew how to calculate the time of day and night, and to predict the dates of the equinoxes.

The oldest tablets classify the names of 35 heavenly bodies including the Sun, the Moon, the five planets visible with the naked eye and numerous stars and constellations. It was at that time that some of the constellations (Leo, Scorpio, Taurus) were given the names by which we still know them today.

Cuneiform texts dating from the late 2nd millennium B.C. state that the three heavenly bodies visible at twilight every day define three parallel zones, known as the paths of Ea, of Anu and of Enlil after the most important gods. Other texts recount the story of the Babylonian cosmogony and of how Marduk managed to clamber to the very top of the divine hierarchy. They also define the Moon's orbit.

A new era of progress based on the use of mathematical methods began in the early centuries of the 1st millennium B.C. A text known as Mul.Apin ("the plough star") contains a star catalogue, the indication of 60 constellations and a method for calculating daylight hours using shadows. Some 3rd century B.C. tablets describe the methods used for calculating the periodical recurrence of astronomical phenomena, also showing tables in which parallel columns of figures are used to predict such occurrences as the new Moon, the opposition and conjunction of the Sun and Moon, and eclipses.

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Tablets in cuneiform script contain the oldest extant records of the Mesopotamian civilisation's knowledge of astronomy. They show us that celestial phenomena, especially as a potential source of omens, were already being studied at the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C.

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Editor's note: Astrobites is a graduate-student-run organization that digests astrophysical literature for undergraduate students. As part of the partnership between the AAS and astrobites, we occasionally repost astrobites content here at AAS Nova. We hope you enjoy this post from astrobites; the original can be viewed at astrobites.org.

Title: The Earliest Candidates of Auroral Observations in Assyrian Astrological Reports: Insights on Solar Activity around 660 BCE
Authors: Hisashi Hayakawa, Yasuyuki Mitsuma, Yusuke Ebihara and Fusa Miyake
First Author's Institution: Osaka University, Japan
Status: Published in ApJL

Humans have always been star-gazers. Since time immemorial we have looked to the heavens and tried to make sense of what we saw there. Thousands of years ago the motions of heavenly bodies and the appearances of comets and meteors were believed to be omens that determined the fates of kings and predicted the downfall of empires. Official court astrologers were employed to read these portents in the sky and divine their (hopefully favourable) meanings.

Many of these ancient observations of celestial events still survive as written records in the form of cuneiform tablets inscribed over two millennia ago. Cuneiform was one of the earliest systems of writing and was typically inscribed on rectangular clay tablets using a blunt reed to produce wedge-shaped marks. Cuneiform tablets have been discovered at archaeological sites all across the Near and Middle East, such as at the ancient Assyrian city of Ninevah (modern-day northern Iraq) - once the largest city in the world. They were used for almost everything, including recording celestial events, documenting laws and religious beliefs, and even for entire literary works - such as the famous Epic of Gilgamesh.

Today's astronomers track changes in the Sun's activity using a variety of methods, including examining the occurrence rates of sunspots. Sunspots are associated with solar flares and coronal mass ejections - huge eruptions composed of high-energy protons and electrons that can cause geomagnetic storms when they are directed towards the Earth. A well-known feature associated with particularly strong geomagnetic storms is the occurrence of aurorae, produced when high-energy particles excite atoms in the Earth's atmosphere. Astronomers have been observing sunspots ever since the advent of the telescope, but if we want to examine the history of the Sun's activity prior to this we need to turn to historical records of phenomena linked to solar activity, such as aurorae.

A team led by Hisashi Hayakawa, a researcher at Osaka University and the lead author of today's paper, carried out a survey of tablets dating from the 8th and 7th centuries B.C. looking for references to aurorae, that might match evidence inferred from tree ring samples. Tree rings store information on the environmental conditions present at the time of their formation - and during periods of strong solar activity, they show enhanced concentrations of the radioactive isotope carbon-14, produced when high-energy particles interact with nitrogen atoms in the atmosphere. Studies of tree-ring samples from around 660 B.C. have been shown to contain elevated carbon-14 levels, and the researchers wondered if they could find any historical references to match this inferred spike in solar activity.

The team found three separate Assyrian and Babylonian cuneiform tablets held in the British museum that referred to "red clouds" and a "red glow" lighting up the night sky and that date from the period 679 to 655 B.C. These descriptions are similar to the previously oldest-known reference to an aurora, found in a Babylonian tablet dating to 587 B.C. The researchers suggest that these descriptions probably refer to a type of auroral activity known as stable auroral red arcs, which are produced by the interaction of strong magnetic fields and the electrons in oxygen atoms.

Although we typically think of aurorae as being a northern-latitude (or southern in the case of the Aurora Australis) phenomenon, this has not always been true. Over time the Earth's geomagnetic poles shift due to changes in the Earth's magnetic field, and thousands of years ago the north pole would have been located much closer to the Middle East. Furthermore, strong solar activity, such as coronal mass ejections, can cause aurorae to become visible at much more southernly latitudes. It is therefore quite likely that aurorae would have been visible in the region of these observations during this time period.

These findings constitute the oldest-known written evidence of candidate aurorae and potentially extend the history of the Sun's activity nearly a century beyond previous records. They could also help us to predict future solar storms, which have the capability of interrupting sensitive electronics on Earth and damaging satellites and spacecraft.

About the author, Jamie Wilson:

Jamie is a graduate student at the Astrophysics Research Centre at Queen's University Belfast.

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Ancient Aurorae: Assyrian and Babylonian Astrologers Recorded the Oldest-Known Solar Storms - AAS Nova

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Astrobites reports on possible depictions of auroral activity found in ancient cuneiform tablets.

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Paul-Alain Beaulieu, Eckart Frahm, Wayne Horowitz and John Steele

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The Cuneiform Uranology Texts: Drawing the Constellations on JSTOR

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Paul-Alain Beaulieu, Eckart Frahm, Wayne Horowitz, John Steele, The Cuneiform Uranology Texts: Drawing the Constellations, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, Vol. 107, No. 2, The Cuneiform Uranology Texts: Drawing the Constellations (2017), pp. i-iii, v, vii, ix, 1-33, 35-65, 67-69, 71-83, 85-115, 117-119, 121

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Just in the first two months of 2019 alone, the night sky has been illuminated by a blood moon, a winter moon, and a super moon. Throughout time, celestial events such as these have - in equal parts - piqued curiosity and portended evil.

Ancient Mesopotamia was no exception. In fact, astronomy and astrology were important disciplines in this region from early on. In the age before light pollution, the vivid night sky made such a strong impression on our ancient ancestors that they thought that the stars and various other heavenly bodies represented deities, says Yale Assyriologist Eckart Frahm. The ancient stargazers were so intrigued by the mechanics of the heavens - and the possibility of being able to make predictions from what they saw in the night sky - that, from the 8th century to the 1st century BCE, they observed very closely on a daily basis the movements of the stars to determine what exactly was happening in the sky, and documented these observations on clay tablets.

The ancient Babylonians studied the night skies for 700 years, making their work "arguably, the longest lasting scholarly science project that ever existed," says Frahm. "Nowhere ever after has any civilization done anything like it," he adds. Through these observations they determined regularities in the sky and were able to begin to predict celestial events such as lunar or solar eclipses.

An eclipse was thought to be especially troublesome as it was believed that it predicted that evil was nigh.

Eckart Frahm

Frahm says that such scientific pursuits went hand in hand in ancient Mesopotamia with a strong belief in astrological omens. Evidence from 7th century BCE Assyria indicates a particular focus on lunar eclipses. "An eclipse was thought to be especially troublesome as it was believed that it predicted that evil was nigh," notes Frahm. To escape this, a "substitute king ritual" had to be performed. For this, the actual king stepped down for up to 100 days, and during this time he pretended to be and was addressed as a farmer, while a "substitute king" - often someone from the margins of society - formally became king in his stead.

Sadly, for the substitute king, the only way to absorb the effects of the evil omen was for him to be sacrificed. The real king was then free to resume his royal duties.

It is likely that stargazers named the constellations and their stars at the dawn of Mesopotamian history, but it wasn't until later that the actual appearance of the constellations or what they represented - deities, human beings, animals, vehicles, and other objects - were described in written form on cuneiform tablets.

A group of five such tablets from first millennium Babylonia and Assyria - four of them newly discovered - provides the earliest prose descriptions of the celestial constellations. Images, hand copies, and translations of these tablets have been assembled in a recently published book, "The Cuneiform Uranology Texts: Drawing the Constellations," that has been co-authored by Frahm, Paul-Alain Beaulieu, Wayne Horowitz, and John Steele. "Uranology" is what the ancient Greeks called the study of the heavens. The tablets are written in cuneiform script and in the Babylonian language. Three of them, all previously unpublished, were found in the sacred city of Uruk in southern Iraq, and are now housed in the Yale Babylonian Collection.

The tablets include descriptions of the celestial constellations Cancer, Pisces, Pegasus, Perseus, and many others, and focus on their parts: body parts for constellations in human or animal form; parts of a wagon for 'The Wagon' and 'Wagon of Heaven' (the Big and Little Dipper). The depictions also typically speak of the clothing that constellations in human form wear, their beards if they are male, and paraphernalia that they hold or carry. A typical passage reads in translation:

The True Shepherd of Anu (i.e., Orion) ... is a human figure, clothed, bearded, supplied with a kurkuru-container(?), and grasping a lock and key. The Twins (i.e., Gemini), who stand in front of the True Shepherd of Anu..., are two human figures, clothed. The front figure is bearded, the back figure has the face of (the demon) Latarak; they carry a large jug in their right hands. The celestial body that stands below the True Shepherd of Anu is the Rooster (Lepus).

The new book shows how the ancient Mesopotamians "read the writing of the heavens," says Frahm. "It's like writing in the stars and through the stars. And just like you can read the texts on a clay tablet, you can also read the configurations and movements of the stars."

These early descriptions of the constellations are interpretations, says Frahm, of what looks in fact just like a grouping of dots. "You really have to be inventive to do this kind of work," he adds, "and here you see our ancient ancestors' imagination at work - even though they claimed that it had been the gods at the beginning of time who had written the stars onto the sky in the forms of specific images."

In order to navigate the sky, the ancient Mesopotamians would organize the stars much in the same way we do it today. In fact, says John Steele, professor of Egyptology and Assyriology at Brown University and co-author of the book, many of the constellations we are familiar with today can be traced back to ancient Mesopotamia. "For example," says Steele, "'The Lion' is our Leo, 'The Crab' is our Cancer, 'The Balance' is our Libra, 'the Twins' is our Gemini, 'The Scorpion' is our Scorpio, and 'The Wagon' is our Big Dipper. Another interesting example is the Babylonian constellation "The Hired Man" which is reimagined in the new texts as a sheep, corresponding to our 'Aries' or 'The Ram.'"

One of the challenges that Frahm - who is one of only a few hundred people worldwide who can accurately read cuneiform texts - encountered while working on the book was reading the cursive style in which some of the tablets were written. Among these is one of the fragments from Uruk housed in the Yale Babylonian Collection. Its contents were of particular interest to Frahm because of a unique juxtaposition of heaven and earth on it. On one side of the tablet are descriptions of celestial constellations and on the other of the topography of the sacred city of Uruk: temples, canals, enclosure walls, and other features. This intrigued Frahm, he says, because "it is likely that this was done deliberately in order to show that these topographic configurations in Uruk were in some way comparable to those one could observe in the skies."

For Frahm, his participation on this book project was an opportunity to expand his scholarship by learning more about Mesopotamian astrological and astronomical concepts, some of which are still with us. "Studying these tablets is an excellent way to draw connections between the ancient past and today," he says.

Two of the three Yale "uranology" tablets will be on display in the upcoming exhibition "Ancient Mesopotamia Speaks: Highlights from the Yale Babylonian Collection" at the Yale Peabody Museum, 170 Whitney Ave. The exhibition will open on April 6.

Related

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Yale Assyriologist decodes 'writing of the heavens' by ancient stargazers

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Just in the first two months of 2019 alone, the night sky has been illuminated by a blood moon, a winter moon, and a super moon. Throughout time, celestial events such as these have - in equal parts - piqued curiosity and portended evil. Ancient Mesopotamia was no exception.

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Tiyrus Tapputi parfüm ile koku alışkanlığınızı değiştirmeye geliyor. Onu duyduğunuz an büyüleneceksiniz. Binlerce yılın ihtişamını, gizemini ve asaletini taşıyan bu özel tasarım parfüm, adını dünyanın koku üreten ilk kadın kimyagerinden alıyor. Mezopotamya'nın bereketli topraklarının ilhamıyla tasarlanan Tapputi parfüm, doğanın hazinelerini teninize saçıyor. Her damlası mücevher gibi teninizde ışıldıyor.

Parfüm uzmanı Bihter Türkan Ergül tarafından incelikle tasarlanan bu özel parfüm, hem kadın hem de erkeklerce kullanılabiliyor. Burnu yormayan hafifliği, etkileyici ve iz bırakan özelliği ile dikkat çeken Tapputi, köklerini tarihten alan bir koku şöleni sunmayı vadediyor. Extrait de parfum formuyla sıradan parfümlerden çok daha kalıcı ve etkili olduğunu ilan eden Tapputi, içerisinde iris çiçeği, safran özü, labdanum, vetiver, biber, beyaz misk, reçine, akgünlük bulunduruyor. Safranla egzotik topraklarda gizem dolu bir gezintiye çıkmaya hazır mısınız? Beyaz miskin kışkırtıcı özleri ile tutkunuzu keşfedecek, vetiverin otoriter duruşu ile imajınızı karizmatik bir koku ile süsleyeceksiniz.

60 ml şişesinde sizlere ulaşan Tapputi, direkt tene sıkılarak kullanılabiliyor. Bilekler, dirsek içleri, boyun gibi vücut ısısının belirgin hissedildiği noktalardan yayılan parfüm, çevrenizde adeta kokudan bir bulut oluşturarak yayılıyor. Onun mistik enerjisiyle imajınızı tazeleyebilir, içinizdeki kadim bilgeliği uyandırabilirsiniz.

Siz de Tapputi parfüm ürününü hemen sipariş vererek Tiyrus ayrıcalıkları ile alışverişin keyfini çıkarın.

Tarihin tozlu sayfalarından size seslenen bir kadın var, duyuyor musunuz? Bu koku, bu günden 4000 yıl önce Mezopotamya topraklarında yaşayan ve kokuya can veren Tapputi'nin anısı için tasarlanıyor. Genç kadın, kraliyet ailesine yaptığı özel kokularla tanınıyor. Günümüze ulaşan kil tabletlerde kokularının içerikleri, formülleri yazarken Tapputi'nin ustalığı ve uzmanlığı da gözler önüne seriliyor. Babilli kadın kimyacı tam ismiyle çivi tabletlerde Tapputi-Belatekallim olarak anılıyor. Tapputi'nin adını ve koku dünyasına kattığı çabaları binlerce yıl sonra yaşatmak için tasarlanan Tapputi parfüm, geçmişten aldığı ilhamla özleri yorumlayarak modernize ediyor.

Üst Nota:Mavi İris,İran Yasemini,

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Tapputi Extrait de Parfüm 100 ml. Kadın Tiyrus Extrait

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Tapputi Extrait de Parfüm 100 ml. Kadın Tiyrus Tapputi parfüm ile koku alışkanlığınızı değiştirmeye geliyor. Onu duyduğunuz an büyüleneceksiniz. Binlerce yılın ihtişamını, gizemini ve asaletini taşıyan bu özel tasarım parfüm, adını dünyanın koku üret

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The exhibition celebrating June 25 as World Fragrance Day was a captivating event that brought together history, art and fragrance culture. Initiated by the Fragrance Culture and Tourism Association, this event went through a formal acceptance process by the U.N. to establish the day as a global celebration.

The exhibition explored the historical significance of fragrances and aromatherapy oils in various civilizations, such as ancient Rome, ancient Greece, ancient Egypt and the Ottoman Empire. Fragrance specialist and perfume designer Bihter Türkan Ergül, one of the founders of the Fragrance Culture and Tourism Association, actively participated in the event and conducted workshops on the harmony between skin types and fragrances.

Artificial intelligence (AI) was utilized to illustrate the production process, raw materials and usage methods of fragrances and essential oils in these ancient civilizations. Moreover, AI has brought historical perfume formulas dating back thousands of years to light. The exhibition also featured replicas of fragrant oil bottles used in those ancient times alongside AI-generated artworks.

The event took place in the historical Nevmekan Selimiye, a Turkish bath dating back to the 19th century. The combination of its historical and artistic value created a fascinating atmosphere for all the visitors.

Four special perfume formulas were also shown in the exhibition. Ancient Rome's most popular formula, Mesopotamia's first known formula, Egypt's first known perfume formula and an exceptional formula that was very famous in Ottoman Palace were some of the focus points of the exhibition, besides many fragrances used in antiquity, like blue lotus.

Usküdar Municipality Mayor Hilmi Türkmen and Member of Parliament Belma Satır were also at the exhibition's opening ceremony.

In the opening speech, Türkmen said: "We witness an extraordinary exhibition. Because there is a Turkish bath that dates back 200 years, built by the order of Sultan Selim III. If we regard this perspective, we witness history. We thought that if that kind of exhibition would be realized, the most appropriate place was here." Türkmen added that the Selimiye Turkish Bath was used by Ottoman soldiers, then it was left to its fate for years and Usküdar Municipality took it from the Directorate General of Foundation and transformed it into an art center and library. He said that it was the first time Nevmekan Selimiye hosted an exhibition of this kind.

Fragrances made based on ancient formulas presented at "The Journey of Perfume: The History of Fragrance from Ancient Ages to the Present" exhibition, Istanbul, Türkiye, July 25, 2023. (Photo by Berrak Sağlam)

On the other hand, Satır said that she was happy to see that such a cultural determinant exhibition is realized in Usküdar, where she lives.

"When I met with Bihter Türkan Ergül, I learned many things about fragrance culture, the richness of fragrance in Türkiye, and the first-ever academy on scents and fragrances. We all use perfume and we have grown up with Turkish cologne culture. After we met with Ergül in 2015, she did wonderful work and opened the first academy in the world on scents and fragrances, Koku Akademisi in Turkish. She realized many projects about fragrance in Erzurum, which is my home town, Şanlıurfa, Isparta, and so on. She talked about the richness of fragrance and the fragrance culture of Türkiye to the whole world. She made projects on fragrance in Europe. She tells the world about Turkish fragrance and perfume culture and shares this richness with us," she said.

Gladiator's favorite: Rhodium

In the exhibition, four special fragrance formulas from history. Rhodium, the most popular formula in Rome, was formulated with the sweat of gladiators and rose oil. Because gladiators' sweat and dirt were seen as valuable besides their blood used in painting and sculpture.

Romans loved perfumes with a simple formula. In Antique Rome, besides rhodium with rose, narcissus, and crocus with saffron, metopium with bitter almonds was among the most loved perfume mixtures.

Romans loved simple perfumes: rhodium with rose, melissa with quince, metopium with bitter almonds, narcissus, and crocus with saffron, but also more complex compositions such as cyprium with henna flowers, nardicum based on costus, nard, and myrrh. These products were sold in the "incense district" called Victus Thuraricus in Rome and were favorite fragrances. Among the most esteemed fragrance, Rose and Nard were always favorites.

Old perfume bottles are displayed in the exhibition "The Journey of Perfume: The History of Fragrance from Ancient Ages to the Present," Istanbul, Türkiye, July 25, 2023. (Photo by Berrak Sağlam)

1st chemist of Mesopotamia: Tapputi

The other formula starred in the exhibition was Mesopotamia's first known formula inscribed on a clay tablet by Tapputi. Tapputi is the first known chemist; she is also the first known woman chemist. Named after the famous chemist Tapputi who lived in Mesopotamia 4,000 years ago and served the Babylonian kingdom as a chemist by producing healing mixtures fragrances, this fragrance cracks the door of the fragrance culture of Mesopotamia.

The oil blend reflects the value of a treasure of thousands of years to its scent. Tapputi contains iris flower, saffron extract, labdanum, vetiver, pepper, white musk, resin and frankincense. Each flower used has a beautiful story in mythology and some spiritual functions and medical benefits used by the Ancient civilization, especially by the upper classes in these civilizations.

We see many of the ingredients in the formula have mythological stories in many cultures like ancient Greece mythology; the Iris flower could absorb the water from the earth to feed the cloud, and while doing that, the rainbow, which was seen as the link between heaven and earth was rising. So, Iris was one of the goddesses in ancient Greek mythology. As Iris personified the rainbow, the Iris flower was planted over women's graves because they believed the rainbow, which is the Greek word for "Iris," could lead them to heaven.

Saffron flowers, derived from the Crocus sativus plant, represent innocence, new beginnings, joy and rebirth. In Greek mythology, Crocus was a beloved companion of Hermes and he was killed accidentally by Hermes. As Hermes mourned for Crocus, the dead body of Crocus transformed into a flower. Saffron is also precious for other civilizations. In the Middle Ages, the death penalty punished anybody who got involved in fraud about Saffron. Saffron benefited in many fields like cuisine, textile, and cosmetics.

According to fragrance curator Brooke Belldon: "It's mentioned in the Bible's Book of Genesis and some scholars believe it also has ties to the Torah. Specialists on ancient Egypt think the false beards worn by Osiris and the pharaohs were actually labdanum-laden goat's beards." In ancient times, labdanum was collected by combing the thighs and the beards of goats and sheep grazing on cistus. The resin of labdanum was used to treat coughs, colds, rheumatism, and menstrual problems. In the Book of Genesis, labdanum was transferred from Palestine to Egypt.

It is an exceptional occasion for visitors to experience that fragrance whose formula is on a clay tablet.

Old perfume bottles are displayed in the exhibition "The Journey of Perfume: The History of Fragrance from Ancient Ages to the Present," Istanbul, Türkiye, July 25, 2023. (Photo by Berrak Sağlam)

Ancient Egypt's 1st formula: Kyphi

Kyphi is Egypt's first known perfume formula. Kyphi is the world's oldest fragrance formula, unearthed from the mysterious labyrinths of Egypt.

According to the information written on the walls of the pyramids, Kyphi, which was prepared as a paste, consisted of a mixture of honey, grapes, wine, rice, myrtle, saffron, juniper and olive oil. This mystical mixture, which was used both by applying to the hair and burning in the fire, was also kept secret by the priests. The content, kept like a secret, consisted of 13 mixtures.

In the exhibition, the example of Kyphie was prepared according to the old formula. The question "if Cleopatra was alive, how would Cleopatra's perfume smell today?" was a beginning point and Cleopatra's fragrance usage habits were good clues to construct the formula. As Cleopatra is an influential figure who shaped an important part of world history, every note in the Kyhpie's formula has mystical fragrances in antiquity: Frankincense which empowers the senses, oud which has a collapsing effect and murr, which has a mysterious breeze and charismatic oud. Kyphi perfume represents the sun and myrrh represents the moon. The moon symbolizing the feminity comes together with the sun symbolizing masculinity in the formula. The formula of Kyphie in the exhibition has all these archeological and spiritual inspirations. Kyphie's formula has red rose and lotus in the top note, Isparta rose in the heart note and black oud, oud and murr in the base note.

The last fragrance is a special mixture of Çamaşırcıbaşı (laundry officer) Yusuf Aga, who worked in the Ottoman Palace in the 17th century.

'AI meets smell'

Stating that the journey of AI and fragrance meets with this exhibition, fragrance expert and famous perfume designer Bihter Türkan Ergül whose perfume designs are inscribed in Fragrantica, said: "With this exhibition, we aimed to upload the information in clay tablets, replicas and manuscripts that archaeologists are working on, to AI and bring it to light. Thus, we embarked on an AI journey where we searched for answers to questions such as 'How was a fragrance designed in Egypt, Rome, Mesopotamia, and the Ottoman Empire?' how were the commercial relations between fragrance and aromatic oils? how was the fragrance trade carried to port cities?' The information we obtained from AI was also combined with the information in manuscripts and clay tablets, and a magnificent exhibition emerged. There is not only visuality in our exhibition but also art and fragrance."

Old perfume bottles are displayed in the exhibition "The Journey of Perfume: The History of Fragrance from Ancient Ages to the Present," Istanbul, Türkiye, July 25, 2023. (Photo by Berrak Sağlam)

Ancient formulas

Pointing out that in the exhibition, besides the visualization of the production, production and raw materials of scents from the ancient age with AI, a real scent experience was brought together with scent lovers, Ergül said.

"Our visitors will be able to experience the scent here; we have fragrance formulas that are 3,000, 5,000, 8,000 years old and some belong to the 17th century of the Ottoman Empire. The formula was made by the laundry officer and the exact recipe for 'bukhur suyu' is in a notebook of the officer was found in the archives of Topkapı Palace and dates back to 1708. We designed the fragrance based on and from that formula. The perfume was designed from a mixture of fragrances prepared for Nefertem, known as the ancient Egyptian goddess of perfume; the fragrance formula of Tapputi, the Kypi formula in ancient Egypt and the most popular Rhodium perfume in Rome are waiting for its visitors in our exhibition."

Different dimension

In his speech, the exhibition's curator of Usküdar Municipality, Erkan Doğanay said: "We wanted to coincide the opening of our exhibition with World Fragrance Day. We prepared our exhibition with a presentation that we can support with documents and objects with which we can tell the history of fragrance by creating some areas of experience. The exhibition, which met with the historical place, gained a different dimension. Here, not only a visual or object presentation of the scent and fragrance but also a presentation where visitors can smell and watch past scents emerge. Talks and workshops await fragrance enthusiasts during the exhibition."

Day registered by UNESCO

The recent decision by the Intangible Cultural Heritage Specialization Committee of the UNESCO Turkish National Commission to examine and endorse the application made by the Fragrance Culture and Tourism Association represents a significant milestone in promoting the worldwide celebration of World Fragrance Day. This recognition underscores the cultural importance and heritage of fragrances, marking a significant stride toward establishing World Fragrance Day as a cherished event internationally.

With the responsibility for the follow-up process of registering World Fragrance Day now transferred to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Türkiye, there is a strong commitment to ensuring the success and acknowledgment of this special occasion.

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World Fragrance Day celebrated with special exhibition in Istanbul

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The Fragrance Culture and Tourism Association's exhibition, 'The Journey of Perfume: The History of Fragrance from Ancient Ages to the...

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INA- sources

A woman named Tapputi carried the distinction of being the first female chemist in Mesopotamia and the first female perfume maker anywhere in the world, approximately 3,200 years ago. Working with a Mesopotamian perfume formula left on an ancient clay tablet that Tapputi herself made, a team of 15 scientists has now successfully recreated one of her Mesopotamian scents in a laboratory setting.

Turkish scientists working in cooperation with Turkey's Smell Academy and Scent Culture Association (Koku Akademisi ve Koku Kültürü Derneği) carried out an extensive investigation of Tapputi's Mesopotamian perfume-making methodologies. Their aim was to first understand what she did, and then possibly duplicate her work in as much detail as possible. They have now partially achieved their goals, although the efforts to translate and interpret the legendary Tapputi's work will continue.

tapputi's Mesopotamian Perfumes Etched in Ancient Clay

Archaeologists found Tapputi's name inscribed on a pair of cuneiform tablets recovered during excavations in southern Turkey, which was part of Babylonian Mesopotamia in the second millennium BC. The tablets gave her full name as Tapputi-Belatekallim, with Belatekallim meaning "a female overseer of a palace." The tablets were dated to 1200 BC, and in their inscriptions Tapputi was described as a registered chemist and expert producer of fine Mesopotamian perfumes (which are unprecedented titles for a woman who lived that far in the past!).

On the tablets, Tapputi recorded her Mesopotamian perfume formulas and the steps she used to produce her scents in ancient Akkadian. Fortunately, scholars know enough about this language that it was possible to translate what she had written.
To make her ancient perfumes, the recovered tablets revealed Tapputi used a combination of different types of flowers, oil, calamus, Cyperus, myrrh, horseradish, spices, and balsam, to name just a few of the ingredients identified. She would mix her various concoctions with water or other solvents, distill them, and then filter her liquid product many times to create a purer and more pleasant-smelling Mesopotamian perfume formula.

Out of this complex jumble of Mesopotamian information, they were able to eventually recreate one of her scent formulas in its entirety.
As a part of her methodology, Ergül reveals, Tapputi would work under a full moon while seeking communion with the stars in the night sky. This esoteric aspect to her Mesopotamian perfume-making activities was one of many secrets uncovered during translations of the two tablets that discussed Tapputi's innovative modus operandi.

Ergül and her team of experts produced 27 pages of translation from the two tablets, which were recovered during excavations near Harran, a sleepy village in Turkey that was a major urban center during Mesopotamian times.

"As the Fragrance Culture Association, we are keeping alive the scent traditions that have existed on these lands," Ergül stated. We live on a land that has an 8,000-year-old scent culture." The fragrance expert noted that there were hundreds of tablets that touch on fragrance production in ancient Mesopotamia unearthed during the excavations, and much work remains to translate them all.

Uncovering the Brilliance of the World's First Known Female Perfume Maker
In addition to Ergül, there were 15 experts involved in this new study of Tapputi and her innovative work. These included Professor Mehmet Önal, an archaeologist from Ozyegin University who led the excavations at Harran, and Associate Professor Cenker Atila, an archaeologist from Sivas Cumhuriyet University and an expert on ancient ceramics, glass works, and perfumes. The research was carried out on artifacts that were previously recovered and have only now been translated after three years of strenuous and dedicated effort.

While they discovered enough to identify all the ingredients used in one of Tapputi's scents, proceeding beyond this point could be a challenge. Atila highlights two problems his team has faced as they've attempted to learn more about Tapputi and her work.
Moving beyond the decoding of formulas and methodologies to the actual recreation of scents in a lab represents a big step. It has been done once so far, and the researchers hope they will be able to resurrect even more scents in the years to come, which will provide direct evidence of Tapputi's true brilliance as the world's first recorded female perfume-maker.

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3,200-Year-Old Mesopotamian Perfume Recreated from Ancient Text

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Calamus
Myrrh
Cedar
Cypress
Honey
Mint
Laurel
Rush/reed/grass - cyperus
Rosewater
Nard/ginger-grass
Cyclamen
Pear
Quince
Plum
Peach
Cherry
Fig
Apricot
Dates
Pistachio
Pomegranate
Licorice
Myrtle
Argan
Glabanum
Storax
Pine
Juniper
Opoponax
Fir
Wormwood
Broom
Tamarisk
Asa foetida
Olibanum
Frankincense

Overheating was a danger that could ruin a fragrance. Much of the perfume chemistry technology is borrowed from the kitchen.

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ave you ever asked yourself, “Just how accurate was ancient weighing? Probably not, but that is what I ask myself almost every day as I struggle to understand Mesopotamian weights from the Bronze Age (3000–1200 BC). 

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ave you ever asked yourself, “Just how accurate was ancient weighing? Probably not, but that is what I ask myself almost every day as I struggle to understand Mesopotamian weights from the Bronze Age (3000–1200 BC). 

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By: William B. Hafford View PDF

Have you ever asked yourself, "Just how accurate was ancient weighing? Probably not, but that is what I ask myself almost every day as I struggle to understand Mesopotamian weights from the Bronze Age (3000-1200 BC).

I am not the first one to have asked the question. In fact, many scholars have contributed significantly to the study of ancient weights and weighing. One of the most comprehensive studies was conducted by Sir Flinders Petrie in 1926. Still cited today, Petrie collected information on some 4,000 weights from many sites across ancient Egypt as he attempted to identify specific weight forms and standard units through time.

Just as Petrie did for Egypt, but with electronic equipment and the benefit of 80 years of smaller studies since, I am gathering a comparative sample for greater Mesopotamia (modern Iraq, Syria, and parts of Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel). Beyond gaining a better understanding of weights, my research focuses on the economic interactions and technological capabilities indicated by the act of weighing itself.

The most common weights used in the Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean were elongated stones reminiscent of dates or olives. Typically made of hematite, some were so highly polished as to result in a silver sheen. Other weights were finely carved in a variety of animal shapes, including bulls, lions, ducks, and frogs.These artifacts are easily recognized and often studied for their artistic interest. But most weights were not so intricate, and many were nothing more than roughly shaped stones. Difficult to identify and rather plain, these less-refined versions can get pushed aside in many investigations,evoking no deep fascination-at least not at first. However, if we ponder their larger implications they become some of the most intriguing finds.

One cloudy day in late November 2002, I was sifting through the artifacts stored in the Museum's basement. I had examined countless weights and ejected many possible forms when I stumbled on a bag labeled "unfinished beads" from the 1922-34 excavations of Ur in Iraq. In their long storage, these 'beads' had been moved often and had lost their original field numbers. This made it impossible to relate them to a particular ancient building or level. Although this lack of information was unfortunate, I knew the artifacts could still tell me something.

There were 14 small stones in the bag, the largest only about 2 cm in length and the smallest less than half a centimeter. They were made mostly of banded agate in bright reds, whites, oranges, and browns. Their form was rough, but tapered, rather like a tiny olive or its pit. Many ancient beads had indeed been made in this form, but none of the 14 had been drilled through for a string. The excavators may have assumed they were a collection of beads that had not been finished by the ancient jeweler.

Agate was commonly used for beads, but it was also used in some cases for weights, and all of these small stones exhibited at least some flattening on one side-a feature typical of weights that allows them to sit in a balance pan without rolling. Moreover, these 'beads' followed an obvious progression in size. I immediately became more intrigued and placed each stone on my finest scales, recording its weight to a hundredth of a gram. Analyzing the numbers, however, I found no apparent logical sequence that compared to the known Mesopotamian unit of weight measure, the shekel.

Marvin Powell's extensive research had definitively shown that the primary Mesopotamian shekel measured around 8.4 grams. My own data from the region (particularly from southern Mesopotamia) confirmed his results. Yet, the sequence I found based on the 8.4 gram shekel was confusing: 2/5, 1/4,3/20, 1/10, 1/20, and 1/60.

Was there a logical sequence I was missing? I knew that the Mesopotamian mathematical system was based on the number 60, so the unit of 1/60 of a shekel seemed to make sense.Perhaps converting to a common denominator of 60 would reveal something: 24/60,15/60,9/60,6/60,3/60, and 1/60.

And there it was. The progression was additive from three and above: 3 plus 6 is 9, 6 plus 9 is 15, and 9 plus 15 is 24. This progression is known as a modified Fibonacci sequence. At the unit of 1/20 of a shekel, it was a true Fibonacci sequence of 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, where each successive number equals the sum of the preceding two numbers.

An additive sequence makes perfect sense for weighing with hand balances. Increasing the load by the next higher weight reaches the next in the sequence, and so forth. With several weights of each denomination, any amount could be assessed quickly and easily. And with the exception of the highest and lowest denominations in this set, there were multiple examples. The likelihood of this collection of shaped stones being a unified set of weights was now quite high. Not only were the objects similar in appearance, material, and manufacture, they also followed a logical, mathematical sequence based on their individual weights. But, what did it all mean for the process of weighing?

Most obviously, this set shows that the ancient Mesopotamians could and did weigh to very small units. It may not have been standard procedure for every transaction, but it was possible to weigh in small fractions of shekels. The capability of most ancient scales does not appear to have reached the level of 1/60 of a shekel (0.14 gram), but some must have been able to register this miniscule difference. Secondly, the set gives us a better picture of the process of weighing in tiny amounts. The person measuring would likely place weights in sequence until the scale became imbalanced, then remove the largest and place a duplicate of the second highest on the scale. If the pan was still heavy, the weigher would remove the duplicate and place the third highest, and so forth until the scales balanced. This would have been a painstaking process, probably involving a light, sensitive scale and some form of tweezers to move the tiny weights. Thus we come to the final, and broader economic implication of the set-there must have been something worth weighing in the tiniest of amounts. Perhaps this commodity was gold dust, rare spices, or some other light and costly material. Whatever it was, it was clearly of high value.

The smallest weight at 0.14 grams, or 1/60 of a shekel,seems out of place in the set, however. Perhaps it represents part of another sequence that was once present-also Fibonacci but at the unit of 1/60-and we are now missing the other pieces. If the smallest weight at 1/20 was too heavy, the weigher would then be able to move down to the 1/60 set and begin the process anew.

Regardless, the inclusion of the 1/60 weight is perhaps the most stunning of all the discoveries surrounding these artifacts. It is, in fact, the smallest physical example of an ancient weight ever recorded. Until now, the smallest reported ancient weight was a tiny hematite duck from Ishchali, near Babylon, that weighed 0.29 grams, or just slightly over 2/60 of a shekel. Interestingly , the existence of this 2/60 shekel weight in ancient Mesopotamia supports the hypothesis that a Fibonacci set based on the 1/60 unit was also used.

Could there have been an even smaller set? Based on the logic to this point, a smaller set would be at the level of 1/180 of a shekel (1/60 is 1/3 of 1/20, 1/180 is 1/3 of 1/60). This seems absurdly small, particularly for archaic balance scales, but the unit was certainly conceptualized. In their own cuneiform texts, Mesopotamian mathematicians often calculated miniscule sums, and they themselves defined their weighing system as based on grains of barley. The shekel, they report, consisted of 180 grains (sein Sumerian). Therefore, if the Mesopotamians physically measured at this level, they may actually have used individual grains of barley!

The smallest unit calculated in the cuneiform texts is the incredibly tiny 1/3 of a barleycorn. Such a weight would be approximately 0.0155 grams, or 1/540 of a shekel. Even if the ancient Mesopotamians measured to this level, which seems highly unlikely, our chances of finding the weights would be even smaller than the mass itself. Nevertheless, it is abundantly clear that the Mesopotamian understanding of fractions, mathematics, and weighing was extraordinarily sophisticated and that these ancient people placed a tremendous amount of ingenuity into miniscule levels of a weighty subject.

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By: William B. Hafford View PDF Have you ever asked yourself, "Just how accurate was ancient weighing? Probably not, but that is what I ask myself almost every day as I struggle to understand Mesopotamian weights from the Bronze Age (3000-1200 BC). I am not the first one to have asked the question.

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THE EPIC OF TUKULTI-NINURTA I: A STUDY IN MIDDLE ASSYRIAN LITERATURE

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THE EPIC OF TUKULTI-NINURTA I: A STUDY IN MIDDLE ASSYRIAN LITERATURE

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by P. Browne, A. Sollee and C. Tsouparopoulou

The goddess Ištar (Sumerian Inana) is one of the most complex deities in the Mesopotamian pantheon ( Figure 1). She is considered the goddess of love and sex, but also of warfare. Her main city was Uruk in Southern Mesopotamia, albeit she became a very important national deity in the Assyrian pantheon, especially in the 1st millennium BCE (Heffron 2016).

The Sumerian goddess Inana was worshipped in several temples around Mesopotamia, with the most famous ones being at Uruk and Nippur. The Semitic/Assyrian Ištar, who it is now believed was originally an independent goddess and only later became identified with the Sumerian Inana (Abusch 2000), was also worshipped in a number of Central and Northern Mesopotamian sanctuaries, with the most famous being those at Nineveh, Aššur, and Arbela (Wilcke 1976-80; George 1993). Ištar is attested in Aššur since the 3rd millennium BCE (Ititi-inscription, RIMA 1, A.0.1001.1), but it needs to be pointed out that several forms of Ištar were revered in Aššur, with Ištar-Aššurītu, a local representation of Ištar, being the most prominent. Ištar-Aššurītu is particularly well attested from the 2nd millennium BCE onwards and was generally perceived to be very similar to the general Ištar, but may have been associated with specific traits of her character (Meinhold 2009: 115). Other forms of Ištar venerated in Aššur were Belat-ekallim, Šarrat-niphi, and Ištar of Nineveh (Meinhold 2009).

The City of Aššur

The ancient city of Aššur (modern name Qalat Sherqat) is located 110 km south of Mosul, on a bank of the Tigris river in Northern Iraq (35°28′ N, 43°14′ E) (Figure 2). Austen Henry Layard, the British archaeologist famous for his excavations at the sites of Nineveh and Kalhu, was aware of the site of Qalat Sherqat in the mid-1800s, as was his Iraqi-Assyrian colleague Hormuzd Rassam (Harper et al. 1995: 17). Following limited exploration of the site by German archaeologists at the end of the century, Friedrich Delitzsch began digging in 1900. However, the main excavations at Aššur took place between 1903 and 1914, initially led by German archaeologist Robert Koldewey, and then by Walter Andrae (Andrae 1922; 1977²).

During this time, Andrae was able to discern the overall layout of the city with its principal structures, including the Ištar temple complex located in the 'Inner City' area (Figure 3). Although a long period of inactivity at the site followed, Iraqi teams under the auspices of the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage continued excavating at the site during the 1970s and 1980s. A new German excavation began in 1989 directed by Barthel Hrouda and then by Reinhard Dittmann in 1989-1990, yet this work came to a halt due to the political situation (Harper et al. 1995: 20; Dittmann 1990; Hrouda 1991). An Iraqi team directed by Hafidt al-Hayani under the supervision of the Department for Antiquities and Heritage continued excavating at Aššur in 1999 and 2000 (al-Hayani 2000), while Peter Miglus led renewed excavations at the site in 2000 and 2001 (Miglus 2000; 2002; see also Miglus 2006-2008 for a general overview of excavations at Aššur). Starting in 1997, several studies aimed at making unpublished data available and re-assessing the development of the site were conducted in the scope of the Assur-Project, headed by Johannes Renger and carried out by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) and the German Oriental Society (Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft). In 2003, Aššur was added to UNESCO's List of World Heritage in Danger.

Thanks to the work of many scholars, the development of Aššur is well understood (for a concise summary, see Miglus 2006-2008). The settlement was established some time during the first half of the 3rd millennium BCE and grew to become an important town, which was mostly governed by local rulers and succeeded in establishing highly profitable trade relations with central Anatolia during the Old Assyrian period (also referred to as the 'kārum' period). Around 1500 BCE, the otherwise fairly unknown ruler Puzur-Aššur III expanded the size of the city considerably by adding the so-called 'Southern' or 'New Town', located south of the 'Old' or 'Inner Town' (Figure 3; see Miglus 2010). With the beginning of the Middle Assyrian period (c. 14th-11th centuries BCE), Aššur acquired a new status as it now represented both the cultural and political capital of a large territorial state. This development is also manifested in the foundation or renovation of many monumental buildings located along the city's northern edge by rulers such as Shalmaneser I, Tukulti-Ninurta I, and Tiglath-Pileser I. From this point on, the settlement was intrinsically connected to the Assyrian state. The temple of the city god Aššur, located at the northeastern tip of the settlement (cf. Haller and Andrae 1955; Gries 2017), served as Assyria's main sanctuary and ideological axis connecting the various spheres of existence (Maul 1997). The city of Aššur maintained this status until the beginning of the Neo-Assyrian period (934-612 BCE), when Aššurnaṣirpal II (r. 883-859 BCE) moved the political centre northwards to the city of Kalhu. The city did not lose its status as the empire's religious and cultural centre and the Assyrian kings continued to build and maintain resplendent buildings there. In 614 BCE, Aššur was sacked and destroyed by Babylonian-Median coalition forces in the course of their military campaign that sealed the fate of the Assyrian state. Following this event, Aššur remained occupied and even flourished again under Parthian rule, but it never regained its previous status.

The Ištar temples at Aššur

The Ištar temples at Aššur represent a lengthy building sequence of various sanctuaries, some of which are known to have been dedicated to the goddess Ištar. Andrae described and evaluated this archaeological complex in two volumes (Andrae 1922; 1935), in which he distinguished between the younger (Middle to Neo Assyrian, i.e. mid-2nd and 1st millennia BCE) and older or 'archaic' (Early Dynastic to early Middle Assyrian, i.e. mid-3rd to mid-2nd millennia BCE) temples. This distinction has also been maintained in more recent reassessments of the building's stratigraphy (Bär 2003; Schmitt 2012).

The Archaic Temples

The first sanctuary ('Temple H'), which is believed to have already been dedicated to Ištar due to the attestations associated with its later phases (for critical remarks on this, see Palmero Fernández 2019: 151-53), was founded on virgin soil probably not at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BCE, as Andrae had originally assumed, but during the late Early Dynastic period (ED III, c. 2500/2400 BCE; Bär 2003). Temple H consisted of the temple building as well as an adjoining area featuring a number of rooms and at least one large courtyard. The inner temple's main element was the cella. It was arranged in a so-called bent-axis scheme, i.e. a rectangular room equipped at one of its small sides with a large niche (also referred to as an adyton), reserved for the placement of a representation of the deity to which the temple was dedicated, and a main entrance at the opposite end of one of the long sides. This architectural layout forced people entering the room to perform a 90° turn in order to view the cult idol. Additional side chambers, perhaps serving as storage areas or areas of non-ritual activities, surrounded the cella. This layout, which finds many parallels in Mesopotamian religious architecture, was also applied to all of the later stages of the Ištar temple - even those of the 1st millennium BCE, when Neo-Assyrian sanctuaries typically featured cellae that were entered through a gate in the centre of the small side located opposite of the adyton (so-called 'long room' temples; Heinrich 1982).

Sometime during the late Early Dynastic period, a new temple ('G') was founded upon the initial building. The plan of Temple G is very similar to that of its predecessor. More importantly, however, Temple G was destroyed by a fire, thanks to which many of the items that had stood in its cella were discovered in situ upon excavation. This does not only allow us to date this event to the late Early Dynastic to Akkadian period (24th-23rd centuries BCE), but it also presents a rare case providing a detailed picture of the items that were stored and/or exhibited in sanctuaries at that time. It includes statues of worshippers, incense burners, and stands, as well as stepped terracotta altars, all of which are believed to have served cultic and/or commemorative practices associated with the sanctuary (see below and Figure 5). Similar objects have been found in other contemporary sanctuaries that have been uncovered at many other sites in the region (e.g. Mari or Tutub), thus indicating cultural connections with other Mesopotamian communities.

Following the violent destruction of Temple G, the cause of which remains unclear, the temple was renovated several times ('Temple GF') before being completely reconstructed during the Ur III period at the end of the 3rd millennium BCE (Bär 2003). This new edifice, referred to as 'Temple E', was more monumental than its predecessors. While maintaining the general concept of a bent-axis temple with an adjacent courtyard, the actual sanctuary of Temple E was now set in place more prominently by elevating it over the courtyard, enlarging its dimensions, and adding more side chambers. Furthermore, the entrance to the cella was redesigned: instead of having to pass through a small room located between the courtyard and the main room of the sanctuary, visitors now ascended a monumental staircase that connected the courtyard and the cella directly and that was flanked by two tower-like projections. Still within the Old Assyrian period, at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE (20th-18th centuries BCE), Temple E was replaced by the even larger 'Temple D'. Despite the poor state of preservation of its remains, Temple D is believed to have been even larger than Temple E and it must have remained in use over a considerable period of time. Inscriptions inform us that it was renovated repeatedly by various Assyrian rulers, including Puzur-Aššur III (c. 1500 BCE), Shalmaneser I (r. 1263-1234 BCE), and Adad-nerari I (r. 1295-1264 BCE). Andrae (1922) named these levels 'Temples B and C', respectively.

The Younger Temples

In the late 13th century BCE, Tukulti-Ninurta I (r. 1233-1197 BCE), allegedly following Ištar's request ( RIMA 1, A.0.78.11: 82-84; Meinhold 2009: 56), replaced the old Ištar temple with a new building (originally referred to as 'Temple A'), thus marking a significant step in the sanctuary's development. Tukulti-Ninurta I's temple represents the best-preserved phase of the sanctuary (Andrae 1935; Schmitt 2012). A new site, located just south of the original edifice, was chosen for the temple, which still featured the bent-axis layout, but was rotated 90° clockwise in comparison to the older constructions. Also, the position of the adyton changed: people entering the cella, having passed through a large gate flanked by projecting towers as well as the rectangular vestibule, now had to turn right instead of left to view the adyton and the statue of the goddess that various fragments indicate may have been located there (Andrae 1977²: 156). The cella featured some remarkable installations: four pierced stones arranged in a square suggest that a canopy, supported by wooden poles, stood in the middle of the cella. The podium reserved for the representation of the goddess was located in the adyton and would have been approached via a monumental staircase. In addition to its monumental architectural appearance, Tukulti-Ninurta I's Ištar temple also yielded significant amounts of dedicatory objects that were stored in the chambers located southwest of the cella (Rooms 5a, 5b, and 6) (see below). Many of these objects were uninscribed, so one can only speculate who dedicated them, while many of those that were inscribed were dedicated by Tukulti-Ninurta I himself, thus indicating a significant change compared to the practices exhibited by the Temple G assemblage, as the king now played a much more central role than he had during the 3rd millennium BCE.

The Ištar-Aššurītu temple constructed by Tukulti-Ninurta I featured another significant element: a second cella located in the western corner of the building. This second sanctuary, which is known to have been dedicated to the goddess Dinītu, a separate manifestation of Ištar (Meinhold 2009; Zsolnay 2009; see also Spencer 2015: 25), was accessible through a separate entrance flanked by projecting towers that were noticeably smaller than those located at the main temple's entrance. The cella of the Dinītu-sanctuary also featured a bent-axis layout, but contrary to the main temple, the approach to the adyton was mirrored, i.e. visitors needed to turn left after entering, and there were no side-chambers adjoining the main room.

Remarkably, a new temple dedicated to Ištar-Aššurītu had already been founded by Aššur-reša-iši I (r. 1132-1115 BCE), who ruled approximately one century after Tukulti-Ninurta I. This new edifice was located just east of the site where the archaic Ištar temples had stood and was considerably smaller than the older structures. Its functional relation to Tukulti-Ninurta I's temple remains an unresolved issue, but it is generally assumed that the two sanctuaries existed side by side for a considerable period of time before Tukulti-Ninurta I's sanctuary was abandoned and covered by Neo-Assyrian houses sometime during the 9th or 8th centuries BCE (Miglus 1996: 128-139). From then onwards, Aššur-reša-iši I's temple was the only Ištar sanctuary in the area, since Bär (2003: 73-75) convincingly demonstrated that the Šarrat-niphi temple Andrae had believed to have been founded by Shalmaneser III (r. 858-824 BCE) never existed. Instead, a shrine dedicated to Šarrat-niphi may have been located within the premises of the Ištar-Aššurītu temple (Meinhold 2009: 167-68; Schmitt 2012: 81). Despite its poor state of preservation, a number of objects found in the immediate surroundings of the remains of the sanctuary constructed by Aššur-reša-iši I are believed to have belonged to the sanctuary's inventory (Schmitt 2012: 71-72). They date to various periods ranging from the late 3rd to late 2nd millennia BCE, hence indicating that antique commemorative objects were also stored in this temple. Contrary to Andrae's proposal (1935; 1977²), scholars assume that Aššur-reša-iši I's temple was not abandoned in the late 7th century BCE when Sîn‐šarru‐iškun (r. 626?-612 BCE) erected the adjoining Nabû-temple, but rather that it was maintained until the city of Aššur was sacked by the Medes in 614 BCE (Schmitt 2012: 99).

Object assemblages from the Ištar Temples

There are two particular themes of interest regarding object collections that stand out when examining the objects discovered in the Ištar Temple at Aššur: 1) which social groups had access to the various areas of the temple, and who was dedicating the objects discovered there; and 2) the display and storage of the objects, especially as some assemblages were concealed from view. These two themes form the basis for the discussion below, which focuses on Temple G (late Early Dynastic Period, mid-3rd millennium BCE) and Tukulti-Ninurta I's temple (Middle Assyrian Period, mid-2nd millennium BCE).

The late Early Dynastic Temple G and the Middle Assyrian Tukulti-Ninurta I's temple yielded large amounts of objects that inform us about dedicatory practices at Aššur during the late Early Dynastic/Akkadian and the Middle Assyrian Periods, respectively. The two assemblages may be viewed as representative for the respective periods, as their elements and compositions find many parallels across Mesopotamia. Furthermore, differences between the inventories indicate that the social dimensions of religious practices at Aššur changed significantly over the c. 1000 years that separate the two temples in question - despite an apparent continuity in overall religious views.

As mentioned above, the fire that destroyed Temple G resulted in the in situ preservation of many objects. This inspired Andrae to form a reconstruction of the layout of the Cult Room (Fig. 4), although objects from both levels H, G and GF are represented in the image and scholars have critiqued its accuracy (see Palmero Fernández 2019: 226, especially the caption of Fig 7.5; 230-31). Notably, Jürgen Bär (2003: 96) has demonstrated that the votive statues were most certainly not arranged on the benches along the room's interior walls, but probably stood facing the adyton. Nevertheless, the collection of finds preserved in the Cult Room and its environs have allowed scholars to investigate not only the display and storage of the ritual objects within (for a detailed discussion see Evans 2012: 81-88), but also related socio-political questions.

In general, the range of items kept in Temple G finds many parallels across Mesopotamia (a detailed catalogue on the objects is provided in Bär 2003). In particular, the votive statues depicting devotees in a praying position (seated or standing) are common in late Early Dynastic temples and have been found at sites from southern Iraq to Northeast Syria. Such statues were dedicated by rulers and wealthy private persons alike, as attested by inscriptions engraved on some of these statues. Similar to other sites, the sculptures discovered in Aššur are believed to have been produced by a local workshop, as their style is unique. Further objects typical for mid-3rd millennium BCE sacred contexts in Mesopotamia are smaller figurines, stone vessels, tall decorated stands, and stepped altars, which have often been termed "house models" (on this point, see Bär 2003: 239). Due to their size and the skilled craftsmanship that their production is assumed to have required, some scholars have proposed that most of the objects were dedicated by members of the social elite. Palmero Fernández suggests that as the construction of new temples became prevalent in the Early Dynastic Period alongside socio-political developments, the types of objects appearing in these sacred spaces reflect the religious and ritual practices crystallizing at the time (2019: 61). She further notes that the objects were made either from materials that were not produced or available locally, or from a mixture of locally and externally sourced materials. Van De Mieroop connects such 'luxury' items with the rise of an elite in the Early Dynastic Period (2002). J. Evans takes a different stance, arguing that social status was not communicated through the craftsmanship and materiality of the sculptures, but by the fact that the donors were allowed to set them up in the temple, thus indicating privileged access to the temple (2012: 130). In either case, the commemorative objects that were put on display in Temple G strongly suggest that at that time, the city of Aššur had already established itself as a local political entity whose members had fully adopted Mesopotamian religious practices and where a social elite with access to the temple had already emerged and consolidated itself. It is furthermore worth noting that more than half of the anthropomorphic statues discovered in Temple G represent women. This is not unusual: similar situations have been observed at Nippur, Girsu, and Mari (Highcock/Tsouparopoulou 2020: 190). Therefore, women did not only have access to the temple; they also participated in the dedicatory practices that took place there.

The assemblage of objects discovered in Tukulti Ninurta I's temple (for a comprehensive catalogue, see Schmitt 2012) differs greatly from that of Temple G, indicating significant changes in religious practices. Concerning the spatial distribution of objects, it may be noted that in this temple most of the dedicatory objects were stored in two side chambers and not the cella. A plethora of objects was found in Rooms 5a, 5b, and 6, including human and animal statuettes, vessels, plates, beads, rosettes, shells, cylinder seals, and figurines depicting human genitals (Andrae 1935; Schmitt 2012: 33-46, 67-68). The most prominent artefacts found here were the stone podia, one of which featured an image showing the King Tukulti-Ninurta I twice - standing and kneeling - in front of an altar, carrying a stylus, the symbol of the god of writing, Nabû (Fig. 5). Remains of food sacrifices and dedicatory objects discovered in the immediate vicinity of these podia suggest that these were related and used in ritual acts. It is also fair to assume that rituals were carried out during their placement in the room, as they were found to have been erected upon accumulations of small artefacts (' Streugaben ') serving as foundation deposits (Andrae 1935; 1977²). Interestingly, these rooms were later sealed and thus made inaccessible while the temple was still in use, and it is believed that they served to store elements of the temple's inventory that were no longer needed (Andrae 1977; Schmitt 2012).

It must be kept in mind, however, that the Middle Assyrian assemblage was not an active one. It represents objects deliberately deposited in sealed-off sections of the building, i.e. they were no longer required in religious activities. On the other hand, the artefacts from Temple G were still in use when the sanctuary was destroyed. On the other hand, the practice of removing items from the active temple and storing them in a specific area with no intention of accessing them again is a new feature of the Middle Assyrian temple compared to its predecessors. This indicates a growing significance of 'hidden' items in Mesopotamian religion, which is also evidenced by the rising number of building inscriptions installed in the Ištar Temple. Most of them would not have been visible while the temple was still in use, as they were laid into the sanctuary's foundations or walls. Tukulti-Ninurta commissioned a great number of objects carrying variations of the inscription commemorating his achievement of erecting the new temple ( RIMA 1, A.0.78.11). Many of them were found on the elements that made up the podium located in the adyton. This impressive feature, upon which a cult idol may have stood, consisted of multiple parts: alternating rows made of lead and stone blocks with small gold and silver tablets in between were emplaced successively in a sequence of steps accompanied by various rituals (Andrae 1977²: 160). The practice of depositing inscriptions directed at the gods as well as future generations had become a central element of the temple building process since the Early Dynastic Period, and was employed to immortalize the ruler by eternally associating his name with a monumental building such as the Ištar temple - a process that also transformed a sanctuary into a votive object dedicated to a deity (cf. Radner 2005: 134-36, 141). Connected to this, the issue of establishing a connection to the past appears to have become of particular importance. Such practices are common and often serve to contribute to efforts to form social identities and to legitimize rulers (Assmann 2018: 70-71). The Middle Assyrian temple's inventory in fact included a number of items that already represented antiquities during the Middle Assyrian Period, such as the votive plaques of Ititi and Zarriqum (Schmitt 2012: 45, 109). Moreover, a large stone statue from the late 3rd or very early 2nd millennium BCE was put on display in a small room adjoining the temple's main entrance. Further, Tukulti-Ninurta I salvaged older documents, such as the five stone tablets carrying building inscriptions by Adad-nerari I ( RIMA 1, A.0.76.15), which he installed in a capsule built into the wall behind the podium in the adyton (Andrae 1977: 160). Additionally, a stone tablet of Shalmaneser I, also featuring a building inscription relating to the Ištar temple, was found in Room 7; although its archaeological context is uncertain, this too might have originally been deposited in the masonry of the temple (Schmitt 2012: 67).

Furthermore, the Middle Assyrian assemblage shows that different kinds of objects were now presented to the gods. Looking at the objects discovered especially in room 5b, we notice that instead of fairly large statues and stands, many people now dedicated smaller items such as miniature figurines made of lead or 'Quarzkeramik' (faience) pottery, only a very few of which were inscribed. This may indicate that larger segments of society now dedicated items in the temple, which may be connected to the decline in control of access to the divine that temples had in Mesopotamian society after the Early Dynastic Period (cf. Evans 2012: 119-120 with references). However, since the vast majority of objects were not inscribed, it is impossible to prove this hypothesis as it cannot be said who the devotees were. It must also be kept in mind that there is only very little information concerning the details of how common people were involved in ritual activities performed in large temples at that time. Access to the inner parts of the temple may well have been restricted, with priests possibly acting as mediators, taking the dedications from the people and presenting them to the relevant deities in their stead, thus adding these objects to the temple inventory.

The Ištar Temples are an excellent example of how Mesopotamian sanctuaries developed over several centuries and their study provides important insights into how commemorative and ritual practices changed over time and reflected social developments like privileges of access. Today, the two major stages of the Ištar Temples that were uncovered by Walther Andrae and his team at the beginning of the 20th century can be compared side by side in the Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin, where objects from 'Temple G' and Tukultī-Ninurta I's temple are displayed alongside each other in the museum's permanent exhibition.

References

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by P. Browne, A. Sollee and C. Tsouparopoulou

The goddess Ištar (Sumerian Inana) is one of the most complex deities in the Mesopotamian pantheon ( Figure 1). She is considered the goddess of love and sex, but also of warfare. Her main city was Uruk in Southern Mesopotamia, albeit she became a very important national deity in the Assyrian pantheon, especially in the 1st millennium BCE (Heffron 2016).

The Sumerian goddess Inana was worshipped in several temples around Mesopotamia, with the most famous ones being at Uruk and Nippur. The Semitic/Assyrian Ištar, who it is now believed was originally an independent goddess and only later became identified with the Sumerian Inana (Abusch 2000), was also worshipped in a number of Central and Northern Mesopotamian sanctuaries, with the most famous being those at Nineveh, Aššur, and Arbela (Wilcke 1976-80; George 1993). Ištar is attested in Aššur since the 3rd millennium BCE (Ititi-inscription, RIMA 1, A.0.1001.1), but it needs to be pointed out that several forms of Ištar were revered in Aššur, with Ištar-Aššurītu, a local representation of Ištar, being the most prominent. Ištar-Aššurītu is particularly well attested from the 2nd millennium BCE onwards and was generally perceived to be very similar to the general Ištar, but may have been associated with specific traits of her character (Meinhold 2009: 115). Other forms of Ištar venerated in Aššur were Belat-ekallim, Šarrat-niphi, and Ištar of Nineveh (Meinhold 2009).

The City of Aššur

The ancient city of Aššur (modern name Qalat Sherqat) is located 110 km south of Mosul, on a bank of the Tigris river in Northern Iraq (35°28′ N, 43°14′ E) (Figure 2). Austen Henry Layard, the British archaeologist famous for his excavations at the sites of Nineveh and Kalhu, was aware of the site of Qalat Sherqat in the mid-1800s, as was his Iraqi-Assyrian colleague Hormuzd Rassam (Harper et al. 1995: 17). Following limited exploration of the site by German archaeologists at the end of the century, Friedrich Delitzsch began digging in 1900. However, the main excavations at Aššur took place between 1903 and 1914, initially led by German archaeologist Robert Koldewey, and then by Walter Andrae (Andrae 1922; 1977²).

During this time, Andrae was able to discern the overall layout of the city with its principal structures, including the Ištar temple complex located in the 'Inner City' area (Figure 3). Although a long period of inactivity at the site followed, Iraqi teams under the auspices of the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage continued excavating at the site during the 1970s and 1980s. A new German excavation began in 1989 directed by Barthel Hrouda and then by Reinhard Dittmann in 1989-1990, yet this work came to a halt due to the political situation (Harper et al. 1995: 20; Dittmann 1990; Hrouda 1991). An Iraqi team directed by Hafidt al-Hayani under the supervision of the Department for Antiquities and Heritage continued excavating at Aššur in 1999 and 2000 (al-Hayani 2000), while Peter Miglus led renewed excavations at the site in 2000 and 2001 (Miglus 2000; 2002; see also Miglus 2006-2008 for a general overview of excavations at Aššur). Starting in 1997, several studies aimed at making unpublished data available and re-assessing the development of the site were conducted in the scope of the Assur-Project, headed by Johannes Renger and carried out by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) and the German Oriental Society (Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft). In 2003, Aššur was added to UNESCO's List of World Heritage in Danger.

Thanks to the work of many scholars, the development of Aššur is well understood (for a concise summary, see Miglus 2006-2008). The settlement was established some time during the first half of the 3rd millennium BCE and grew to become an important town, which was mostly governed by local rulers and succeeded in establishing highly profitable trade relations with central Anatolia during the Old Assyrian period (also referred to as the 'kārum' period). Around 1500 BCE, the otherwise fairly unknown ruler Puzur-Aššur III expanded the size of the city considerably by adding the so-called 'Southern' or 'New Town', located south of the 'Old' or 'Inner Town' (Figure 3; see Miglus 2010). With the beginning of the Middle Assyrian period (c. 14th-11th centuries BCE), Aššur acquired a new status as it now represented both the cultural and political capital of a large territorial state. This development is also manifested in the foundation or renovation of many monumental buildings located along the city's northern edge by rulers such as Shalmaneser I, Tukulti-Ninurta I, and Tiglath-Pileser I. From this point on, the settlement was intrinsically connected to the Assyrian state. The temple of the city god Aššur, located at the northeastern tip of the settlement (cf. Haller and Andrae 1955; Gries 2017), served as Assyria's main sanctuary and ideological axis connecting the various spheres of existence (Maul 1997). The city of Aššur maintained this status until the beginning of the Neo-Assyrian period (934-612 BCE), when Aššurnaṣirpal II (r. 883-859 BCE) moved the political centre northwards to the city of Kalhu. The city did not lose its status as the empire's religious and cultural centre and the Assyrian kings continued to build and maintain resplendent buildings there. In 614 BCE, Aššur was sacked and destroyed by Babylonian-Median coalition forces in the course of their military campaign that sealed the fate of the Assyrian state. Following this event, Aššur remained occupied and even flourished again under Parthian rule, but it never regained its previous status.

The Ištar temples at Aššur

The Ištar temples at Aššur represent a lengthy building sequence of various sanctuaries, some of which are known to have been dedicated to the goddess Ištar. Andrae described and evaluated this archaeological complex in two volumes (Andrae 1922; 1935), in which he distinguished between the younger (Middle to Neo Assyrian, i.e. mid-2nd and 1st millennia BCE) and older or 'archaic' (Early Dynastic to early Middle Assyrian, i.e. mid-3rd to mid-2nd millennia BCE) temples. This distinction has also been maintained in more recent reassessments of the building's stratigraphy (Bär 2003; Schmitt 2012).

The Archaic Temples

The first sanctuary ('Temple H'), which is believed to have already been dedicated to Ištar due to the attestations associated with its later phases (for critical remarks on this, see Palmero Fernández 2019: 151-53), was founded on virgin soil probably not at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BCE, as Andrae had originally assumed, but during the late Early Dynastic period (ED III, c. 2500/2400 BCE; Bär 2003). Temple H consisted of the temple building as well as an adjoining area featuring a number of rooms and at least one large courtyard. The inner temple's main element was the cella. It was arranged in a so-called bent-axis scheme, i.e. a rectangular room equipped at one of its small sides with a large niche (also referred to as an adyton), reserved for the placement of a representation of the deity to which the temple was dedicated, and a main entrance at the opposite end of one of the long sides. This architectural layout forced people entering the room to perform a 90° turn in order to view the cult idol. Additional side chambers, perhaps serving as storage areas or areas of non-ritual activities, surrounded the cella. This layout, which finds many parallels in Mesopotamian religious architecture, was also applied to all of the later stages of the Ištar temple - even those of the 1st millennium BCE, when Neo-Assyrian sanctuaries typically featured cellae that were entered through a gate in the centre of the small side located opposite of the adyton (so-called 'long room' temples; Heinrich 1982).

Sometime during the late Early Dynastic period, a new temple ('G') was founded upon the initial building. The plan of Temple G is very similar to that of its predecessor. More importantly, however, Temple G was destroyed by a fire, thanks to which many of the items that had stood in its cella were discovered in situ upon excavation. This does not only allow us to date this event to the late Early Dynastic to Akkadian period (24th-23rd centuries BCE), but it also presents a rare case providing a detailed picture of the items that were stored and/or exhibited in sanctuaries at that time. It includes statues of worshippers, incense burners, and stands, as well as stepped terracotta altars, all of which are believed to have served cultic and/or commemorative practices associated with the sanctuary (see below and Figure 5). Similar objects have been found in other contemporary sanctuaries that have been uncovered at many other sites in the region (e.g. Mari or Tutub), thus indicating cultural connections with other Mesopotamian communities.

Following the violent destruction of Temple G, the cause of which remains unclear, the temple was renovated several times ('Temple GF') before being completely reconstructed during the Ur III period at the end of the 3rd millennium BCE (Bär 2003). This new edifice, referred to as 'Temple E', was more monumental than its predecessors. While maintaining the general concept of a bent-axis temple with an adjacent courtyard, the actual sanctuary of Temple E was now set in place more prominently by elevating it over the courtyard, enlarging its dimensions, and adding more side chambers. Furthermore, the entrance to the cella was redesigned: instead of having to pass through a small room located between the courtyard and the main room of the sanctuary, visitors now ascended a monumental staircase that connected the courtyard and the cella directly and that was flanked by two tower-like projections. Still within the Old Assyrian period, at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE (20th-18th centuries BCE), Temple E was replaced by the even larger 'Temple D'. Despite the poor state of preservation of its remains, Temple D is believed to have been even larger than Temple E and it must have remained in use over a considerable period of time. Inscriptions inform us that it was renovated repeatedly by various Assyrian rulers, including Puzur-Aššur III (c. 1500 BCE), Shalmaneser I (r. 1263-1234 BCE), and Adad-nerari I (r. 1295-1264 BCE). Andrae (1922) named these levels 'Temples B and C', respectively.

The Younger Temples

In the late 13th century BCE, Tukulti-Ninurta I (r. 1233-1197 BCE), allegedly following Ištar's request ( RIMA 1, A.0.78.11: 82-84; Meinhold 2009: 56), replaced the old Ištar temple with a new building (originally referred to as 'Temple A'), thus marking a significant step in the sanctuary's development. Tukulti-Ninurta I's temple represents the best-preserved phase of the sanctuary (Andrae 1935; Schmitt 2012). A new site, located just south of the original edifice, was chosen for the temple, which still featured the bent-axis layout, but was rotated 90° clockwise in comparison to the older constructions. Also, the position of the adyton changed: people entering the cella, having passed through a large gate flanked by projecting towers as well as the rectangular vestibule, now had to turn right instead of left to view the adyton and the statue of the goddess that various fragments indicate may have been located there (Andrae 1977²: 156). The cella featured some remarkable installations: four pierced stones arranged in a square suggest that a canopy, supported by wooden poles, stood in the middle of the cella. The podium reserved for the representation of the goddess was located in the adyton and would have been approached via a monumental staircase. In addition to its monumental architectural appearance, Tukulti-Ninurta I's Ištar temple also yielded significant amounts of dedicatory objects that were stored in the chambers located southwest of the cella (Rooms 5a, 5b, and 6) (see below). Many of these objects were uninscribed, so one can only speculate who dedicated them, while many of those that were inscribed were dedicated by Tukulti-Ninurta I himself, thus indicating a significant change compared to the practices exhibited by the Temple G assemblage, as the king now played a much more central role than he had during the 3rd millennium BCE.

The Ištar-Aššurītu temple constructed by Tukulti-Ninurta I featured another significant element: a second cella located in the western corner of the building. This second sanctuary, which is known to have been dedicated to the goddess Dinītu, a separate manifestation of Ištar (Meinhold 2009; Zsolnay 2009; see also Spencer 2015: 25), was accessible through a separate entrance flanked by projecting towers that were noticeably smaller than those located at the main temple's entrance. The cella of the Dinītu-sanctuary also featured a bent-axis layout, but contrary to the main temple, the approach to the adyton was mirrored, i.e. visitors needed to turn left after entering, and there were no side-chambers adjoining the main room.

Remarkably, a new temple dedicated to Ištar-Aššurītu had already been founded by Aššur-reša-iši I (r. 1132-1115 BCE), who ruled approximately one century after Tukulti-Ninurta I. This new edifice was located just east of the site where the archaic Ištar temples had stood and was considerably smaller than the older structures. Its functional relation to Tukulti-Ninurta I's temple remains an unresolved issue, but it is generally assumed that the two sanctuaries existed side by side for a considerable period of time before Tukulti-Ninurta I's sanctuary was abandoned and covered by Neo-Assyrian houses sometime during the 9th or 8th centuries BCE (Miglus 1996: 128-139). From then onwards, Aššur-reša-iši I's temple was the only Ištar sanctuary in the area, since Bär (2003: 73-75) convincingly demonstrated that the Šarrat-niphi temple Andrae had believed to have been founded by Shalmaneser III (r. 858-824 BCE) never existed. Instead, a shrine dedicated to Šarrat-niphi may have been located within the premises of the Ištar-Aššurītu temple (Meinhold 2009: 167-68; Schmitt 2012: 81). Despite its poor state of preservation, a number of objects found in the immediate surroundings of the remains of the sanctuary constructed by Aššur-reša-iši I are believed to have belonged to the sanctuary's inventory (Schmitt 2012: 71-72). They date to various periods ranging from the late 3rd to late 2nd millennia BCE, hence indicating that antique commemorative objects were also stored in this temple. Contrary to Andrae's proposal (1935; 1977²), scholars assume that Aššur-reša-iši I's temple was not abandoned in the late 7th century BCE when Sîn‐šarru‐iškun (r. 626?-612 BCE) erected the adjoining Nabû-temple, but rather that it was maintained until the city of Aššur was sacked by the Medes in 614 BCE (Schmitt 2012: 99).

Object assemblages from the Ištar Temples

There are two particular themes of interest regarding object collections that stand out when examining the objects discovered in the Ištar Temple at Aššur: 1) which social groups had access to the various areas of the temple, and who was dedicating the objects discovered there; and 2) the display and storage of the objects, especially as some assemblages were concealed from view. These two themes form the basis for the discussion below, which focuses on Temple G (late Early Dynastic Period, mid-3rd millennium BCE) and Tukulti-Ninurta I's temple (Middle Assyrian Period, mid-2nd millennium BCE).

The late Early Dynastic Temple G and the Middle Assyrian Tukulti-Ninurta I's temple yielded large amounts of objects that inform us about dedicatory practices at Aššur during the late Early Dynastic/Akkadian and the Middle Assyrian Periods, respectively. The two assemblages may be viewed as representative for the respective periods, as their elements and compositions find many parallels across Mesopotamia. Furthermore, differences between the inventories indicate that the social dimensions of religious practices at Aššur changed significantly over the c. 1000 years that separate the two temples in question - despite an apparent continuity in overall religious views.

As mentioned above, the fire that destroyed Temple G resulted in the in situ preservation of many objects. This inspired Andrae to form a reconstruction of the layout of the Cult Room (Fig. 4), although objects from both levels H, G and GF are represented in the image and scholars have critiqued its accuracy (see Palmero Fernández 2019: 226, especially the caption of Fig 7.5; 230-31). Notably, Jürgen Bär (2003: 96) has demonstrated that the votive statues were most certainly not arranged on the benches along the room's interior walls, but probably stood facing the adyton. Nevertheless, the collection of finds preserved in the Cult Room and its environs have allowed scholars to investigate not only the display and storage of the ritual objects within (for a detailed discussion see Evans 2012: 81-88), but also related socio-political questions.

In general, the range of items kept in Temple G finds many parallels across Mesopotamia (a detailed catalogue on the objects is provided in Bär 2003). In particular, the votive statues depicting devotees in a praying position (seated or standing) are common in late Early Dynastic temples and have been found at sites from southern Iraq to Northeast Syria. Such statues were dedicated by rulers and wealthy private persons alike, as attested by inscriptions engraved on some of these statues. Similar to other sites, the sculptures discovered in Aššur are believed to have been produced by a local workshop, as their style is unique. Further objects typical for mid-3rd millennium BCE sacred contexts in Mesopotamia are smaller figurines, stone vessels, tall decorated stands, and stepped altars, which have often been termed "house models" (on this point, see Bär 2003: 239). Due to their size and the skilled craftsmanship that their production is assumed to have required, some scholars have proposed that most of the objects were dedicated by members of the social elite. Palmero Fernández suggests that as the construction of new temples became prevalent in the Early Dynastic Period alongside socio-political developments, the types of objects appearing in these sacred spaces reflect the religious and ritual practices crystallizing at the time (2019: 61). She further notes that the objects were made either from materials that were not produced or available locally, or from a mixture of locally and externally sourced materials. Van De Mieroop connects such 'luxury' items with the rise of an elite in the Early Dynastic Period (2002). J. Evans takes a different stance, arguing that social status was not communicated through the craftsmanship and materiality of the sculptures, but by the fact that the donors were allowed to set them up in the temple, thus indicating privileged access to the temple (2012: 130). In either case, the commemorative objects that were put on display in Temple G strongly suggest that at that time, the city of Aššur had already established itself as a local political entity whose members had fully adopted Mesopotamian religious practices and where a social elite with access to the temple had already emerged and consolidated itself. It is furthermore worth noting that more than half of the anthropomorphic statues discovered in Temple G represent women. This is not unusual: similar situations have been observed at Nippur, Girsu, and Mari (Highcock/Tsouparopoulou 2020: 190). Therefore, women did not only have access to the temple; they also participated in the dedicatory practices that took place there.

The assemblage of objects discovered in Tukulti Ninurta I's temple (for a comprehensive catalogue, see Schmitt 2012) differs greatly from that of Temple G, indicating significant changes in religious practices. Concerning the spatial distribution of objects, it may be noted that in this temple most of the dedicatory objects were stored in two side chambers and not the cella. A plethora of objects was found in Rooms 5a, 5b, and 6, including human and animal statuettes, vessels, plates, beads, rosettes, shells, cylinder seals, and figurines depicting human genitals (Andrae 1935; Schmitt 2012: 33-46, 67-68). The most prominent artefacts found here were the stone podia, one of which featured an image showing the King Tukulti-Ninurta I twice - standing and kneeling - in front of an altar, carrying a stylus, the symbol of the god of writing, Nabû (Fig. 5). Remains of food sacrifices and dedicatory objects discovered in the immediate vicinity of these podia suggest that these were related and used in ritual acts. It is also fair to assume that rituals were carried out during their placement in the room, as they were found to have been erected upon accumulations of small artefacts (' Streugaben ') serving as foundation deposits (Andrae 1935; 1977²). Interestingly, these rooms were later sealed and thus made inaccessible while the temple was still in use, and it is believed that they served to store elements of the temple's inventory that were no longer needed (Andrae 1977; Schmitt 2012).

It must be kept in mind, however, that the Middle Assyrian assemblage was not an active one. It represents objects deliberately deposited in sealed-off sections of the building, i.e. they were no longer required in religious activities. On the other hand, the artefacts from Temple G were still in use when the sanctuary was destroyed. On the other hand, the practice of removing items from the active temple and storing them in a specific area with no intention of accessing them again is a new feature of the Middle Assyrian temple compared to its predecessors. This indicates a growing significance of 'hidden' items in Mesopotamian religion, which is also evidenced by the rising number of building inscriptions installed in the Ištar Temple. Most of them would not have been visible while the temple was still in use, as they were laid into the sanctuary's foundations or walls. Tukulti-Ninurta commissioned a great number of objects carrying variations of the inscription commemorating his achievement of erecting the new temple ( RIMA 1, A.0.78.11). Many of them were found on the elements that made up the podium located in the adyton. This impressive feature, upon which a cult idol may have stood, consisted of multiple parts: alternating rows made of lead and stone blocks with small gold and silver tablets in between were emplaced successively in a sequence of steps accompanied by various rituals (Andrae 1977²: 160). The practice of depositing inscriptions directed at the gods as well as future generations had become a central element of the temple building process since the Early Dynastic Period, and was employed to immortalize the ruler by eternally associating his name with a monumental building such as the Ištar temple - a process that also transformed a sanctuary into a votive object dedicated to a deity (cf. Radner 2005: 134-36, 141). Connected to this, the issue of establishing a connection to the past appears to have become of particular importance. Such practices are common and often serve to contribute to efforts to form social identities and to legitimize rulers (Assmann 2018: 70-71). The Middle Assyrian temple's inventory in fact included a number of items that already represented antiquities during the Middle Assyrian Period, such as the votive plaques of Ititi and Zarriqum (Schmitt 2012: 45, 109). Moreover, a large stone statue from the late 3rd or very early 2nd millennium BCE was put on display in a small room adjoining the temple's main entrance. Further, Tukulti-Ninurta I salvaged older documents, such as the five stone tablets carrying building inscriptions by Adad-nerari I ( RIMA 1, A.0.76.15), which he installed in a capsule built into the wall behind the podium in the adyton (Andrae 1977: 160). Additionally, a stone tablet of Shalmaneser I, also featuring a building inscription relating to the Ištar temple, was found in Room 7; although its archaeological context is uncertain, this too might have originally been deposited in the masonry of the temple (Schmitt 2012: 67).

Furthermore, the Middle Assyrian assemblage shows that different kinds of objects were now presented to the gods. Looking at the objects discovered especially in room 5b, we notice that instead of fairly large statues and stands, many people now dedicated smaller items such as miniature figurines made of lead or 'Quarzkeramik' (faience) pottery, only a very few of which were inscribed. This may indicate that larger segments of society now dedicated items in the temple, which may be connected to the decline in control of access to the divine that temples had in Mesopotamian society after the Early Dynastic Period (cf. Evans 2012: 119-120 with references). However, since the vast majority of objects were not inscribed, it is impossible to prove this hypothesis as it cannot be said who the devotees were. It must also be kept in mind that there is only very little information concerning the details of how common people were involved in ritual activities performed in large temples at that time. Access to the inner parts of the temple may well have been restricted, with priests possibly acting as mediators, taking the dedications from the people and presenting them to the relevant deities in their stead, thus adding these objects to the temple inventory.

The Ištar Temples are an excellent example of how Mesopotamian sanctuaries developed over several centuries and their study provides important insights into how commemorative and ritual practices changed over time and reflected social developments like privileges of access. Today, the two major stages of the Ištar Temples that were uncovered by Walther Andrae and his team at the beginning of the 20th century can be compared side by side in the Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin, where objects from 'Temple G' and Tukultī-Ninurta I's temple are displayed alongside each other in the museum's permanent exhibition.

References

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The Mesopotamian Temple of Ištar in Aššur - Gods' Collections

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by P. Browne, A. Sollee and C. Tsouparopoulou The goddess Ištar (Sumerian Inana) is one of the most complex deities in the Mesopotamian pantheon ( Figure 1). She is considered the goddess of love and sex, but also of warfare.

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On the west bank of the Tigris, less than a mile downriver from the town of Sherqat in northern Iraq, a wedge-shaped rocky outcrop presses the blue ribbon of the Tigris into a sharp southward bend. Bursts of green crop fields cling close to the water, but in the distance is an unbroken expanse of beige. At the base of the crag I arrived at the perimeter walls of a tired-looking building with barred windows and an armed guard. This was the office of Salem Abdullah, archaeological director of the ancient city of Assur, which once thrived on this rock as the capital of the Assyrian Empire.

Abdullah, who was raised in a nearby village, has a long connection to Assur. His father worked here, where he died of a heart attack among the ruins, and since 2001 Abdullah has worked here too. "My relationship with this place is above a job," he told me. "It is like family. I think of this place like my grandmother. Come, and I'll introduce you."

We left the office under a blazing summer sun, stepping over the remains of mud-brick walls and slowly climbing as we crossed the city. A hot wind kicked up ancient soil. The site measures only a square mile, but walking it made it feel larger, even sprawling. Abdullah avoided the dirt road that cut through the center, instead picking a path straight over the ruins. He wore a button-down shirt and gray polyester suit but scrambled over low walls and trenches with ease.

We stopped at the edge of an escarpment. The Tigris tumbled by, roughly 85 feet below. To our right a crumbling ziggurat rose from the lip of the cliff. "This area was the temple of Assur," Abdullah said, shielding his eyes from swirling dust. "The most important place in the whole city."

The Assyrian Empire grew out of the founding of the city-state of Assur in the third millennium B.C. Between the ninth and seventh centuries B.C., it was the most powerful empire the Near East had ever seen, encompassing Mesopotamia, Anatolia and parts of Egypt and the Levant. Assur, the empire's first capital, was believed to be the physical manifestation of the deity for whom the city was named, and the temple his eternal residence. But it was also a wealthy hub for regional trade, positioned along one of the main caravan routes, and it formed an especially lucrative trading relationship with Anatolia, in what is now Turkey. Much of what we know about the city's early flourishing comes from a remarkable collection of more than 23,000 clay Assyrian tablets discovered at the Turkish site of Karum Kanesh, 600 miles away.

As I looked with Abdullah across the site, the ancient city took shape before my eyes. Ruins coalesced like a blueprint into housing districts, temple walls and occasional monumental buildings. Most dramatic was the ziggurat, which is some 85 feet tall and once stood at least twice as high. More than 4,000 years old, it was part of a temple complex dedicated to the god Assur. In antiquity its six million mud bricks were covered with sheets of iron and lead and inlaid with crystals. Now the great mound looked as if it were melting, with dried mud settled like candle wax around the base.

"Only a fraction of all this has ever been excavated," Abdullah said. "There were 117 Assyrian kings. When these kings died, they were buried here." But to date only three royal graves have been identified. "Where are the rest?" He paused. "They're here, under our feet."

Residents treat Assur like a local park, wandering in for picnics. "In spring, you can't see the ground."

Assur was first excavated at the turn of the 20th century, when a German expedition established the city's boundaries by cutting a series of trenches. The archaeologists recovered thousands of cylinder seals and baked clay tablets, some carved with cuneiform inscriptions written in the second millennium B.C., which detailed religious rituals, business transactions and other subjects. But in recent decades, archaeologists have worked at the site only intermittently. "For Iraqis, it's expensive," Abdullah said. "The government can't afford it." The last major excavation concluded in 2002. Abdullah estimates that 85 to 90 percent of the site remains unexplored.

The challenges are numerous. For a start, it's nearly impossible to secure the site. A mesh fence runs along to the road, but many sections have been flattened or removed altogether. And while a visitor technically requires a ticket, without staff to enforce the rule that system hasn't worked for 30 years. Instead, residents of Sherqat treat Assur like a local park, wandering in for picnics. "In spring you can't see the ground," Abdullah said, referring to the volume of trespassers and the litter they leave behind. He stressed that local people would be less likely to damage remains if they knew more about the place and its value, but given the conflict and instability of recent decades there has been little opportunity for education. There is looting too. Every time it rains, topsoil washes away and artifacts-pot- sherds and even cuneiform tablets and statuettes-emerge on the surface of the ground. Although Abdullah believes Sherqatis respect the site too much to steal, it wouldn't be difficult to pick up a few things and traffic them on the black market.

It wouldn't be difficult to pick up a few things and traffic them on the black market.

We walked west, to where three broad arches of the Tabira Gate glowed like bronze in the amber light of early evening. The structure is thought to date to the 14th century B.C. Though the gate is still the best-preserved monument at the site, it sustained heavy damage in 2015 when ISIS militants, having conquered the area, blew a hole in the structure. In 2020, three years after the area's liberation, a joint project between the American University of Iraq-Sulaimani and the Aliph Foundation, a group that works to protect cultural heritage in war zones, carried out reconstruction work on the gate. By the time I visited, the contemporary mud bricks had bedded in nicely.

Still, Abdullah remains anxious about threats to the site. His greatest worry is the planned construction of a dam 25 miles south, at Makhoul. The dam was first proposed in 2002. The following year, Unesco named Assur a World Heritage site in danger, cautioning that the reservoir could flood numerous nearby archaeological sites. The project was halted by the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, but, with fears of regional water shortages, the government in Baghdad revived the plan. In April 2021, workers laid a cornerstone, and excavators and other construction vehicles have since appeared at the site.

"The government is not listening. Not to the academics, or geologists, or anyone."

Khalil Khalaf Al Jbory, head of archaeology at Tikrit University, estimates that more than 200 archaeological sites near Sherqat are at risk of flooding. Assyrian sites, constructed primarily of mud, would be lost forever. He also pointed to what he called a "social disaster," with tens of thousands of people facing displacement. "The government is not listening," Al Jbory told me. "Not to the academics, or geologists, or anyone. It's very dangerous, and very risky."

Abdullah had not lost hope, but he agreed that Assur's future was dire unless something could be done to alter the plans. "When I say this is my grandmother, I mean that I also see her wrinkles," he told me. "She needs help now."
Emily Garthwaite and Leon McCarron received financial support to work on this story from the Amersi Foundation and the Abraham Path Initiative.

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At the Iraqi Site of Assur, Ancient History Stands at Risk of Destruction

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On the west bank of the Tigris, less than a mile downriver from the town of Sherqat in northern Iraq, a wedge-shaped rocky outcrop presses the blue ribbon of the Tigris into a sharp southward bend. Bursts of green crop fields cling close to the water, but in the distance is an unbroken expanse of beige.

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