From one of humanity’s first cooking guides dating back to 1.730 BC
In this short piece, dear reader, I will explain how the Sumerian-Acadian civilization left behind one of the oldest cooking guides, written in cuneiform.
Cuneiform: an ancient writing system
The Sumerian writing system, cuneiform, was developed by the Sumerians, and they passed on this knowledge to their successors, the Akkadians. The latter went on to build their own writing system also in cuneiform.
Cuneiform writing was used by the earliest recorded Semitic language, derived from ancient Sumerian, an unrelated isolated language known as Akkadian.
The rise of the Akkadians
Under the leadership of King Sargon I, the Akkadians, a semi-nomadic Semitic people, overpowered the Sumerians by conquering the Mesopotamian region between 2550 B.C. and 2300 B.C.
Akkadians unified the Sumerian city-states, thus creating the “First Mesopotamian Empire,” also known as the Sumerian-Acadian civilization.
The Akkadian language was named after the most important city in the empire: Akkad. The capital of the empire became, in fact, known as Akkadia.
Akkadian: A linguistic background
Hence, the Akkadian language can be traced back to the Sumerian civilization, making it one of the oldest languages.
The Assyrians and Babylonians spoke Akkadian in ancient Mesopotamia, which today includes much of Iraq and Kuwait and parts of Syria, Turkey, and Iran.
The Akkadian written language has been preserved for thousands of years. Most known texts have been inscribed on clay tablets, cones, prisms, and other objects.
These ancient writings are kept in museums worldwide and studied by some of the most renowned linguists.
Ancient Akkadian recipes
I was recently researching ancient civilization cuisine when I came across an extraordinary Babylonian clay tablet written in Akkadian that contained some of the oldest known cooking recipes.
The tablet is on display at the Yale Babylonian Collection and includes 25 recipes for stews, 21 meat stews, and four vegetable stews. ca. 1.730 BC.
Other ancient texts at Yale
The Yale Babylonian Collection has a wide range of texts from various genres, types, and periods from ancient Mesopotamia.
The YBC inscriptions contain a variety of Sumerian, Akkadian, and Hittite texts, namely the following highlights:
- The poetic oeuvre of princess Enheduanna considered the first author in history (composed over 4200 years ago.);
- A mathematical school tablet which approximates the square root of 2;
- The old Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh;
- A Sumerian agricultural manual.
Concluding remarks
According to Yale, only four of the Sumerian-Akkadian civilization’s tablets are known to contain recipes. These four pieces, approximately 4000 years old, are housed in the Yale Babylonian Collection at Sterling Memorial Library.
In 2016, an interdisciplinary team cooked some 4000-year old recipes at an event celebrating Babylonian cuisine. You can learn more about this how-to cook an ancient delicacy here and watch the video on YouTube.
Afterward, you can try to cook your very own Babylonian lamb stew with beets following this ancient recipe.
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