IV. The Mesopotamian Menu

The Mesopotamian cuisine was varied, rich, and sophisticated. We know this from a great number of written documents and artifacts, recovered from many archaeological sites in Iraq. There is, for instance, the bilingual Sumerian –Akkadian document written on twenty-four cuneiform tablets in which over 800 food and drink items are classified under 400 headings. From this glossary we learn that they made twenty varieties of cheese, such as: cream cheese, similar to the soft cheese that we make today from drained yogurt; fresh cheese, both flavored and sweetened; and sharp cheese. From this record we also learn that they knew about one hundred kinds of soup, thick and nourishing enough to stick to the ribs, using lentils, chickpeas, turnips, bulgur, and fish.