Date Culture in Ancient Babylonia

Abstract

In the Revue dyAssyriologie of 1913, V. Scheil called attention to the importance of the date-palm culture for ancient Babylonia, and to the comparatively high state of perfection which it had attained.1 His remarks were based on a tablet of his own, coming from Umma, and a fragment of another from Nippur.2 From these documents he draws the following conclusions: 1. That there existed as early as 2400 B.C. in the Tigris-Euphrates Delta large date-palm orchards of many hectares in extent; 2. That the size of orchards was readily estimated, not by the usual field measurements, but by the number of trees in it; 3. That artificial fecundation of the female date tree was em- ployed, and that male trees were grown apart; 4. That the estimation of the produce was made according to series of trees of practically equal bearing ability, and instead of weighty volume measure was employed; 5. That the maximum yield per tree went as high as 300 ka (105 kilograms, or 141 liters); 6. That accounts in this matter were kept with rigor and pre- ciseness, according to the most rational proceedings. Since the publication of this short article of Scheil's the subject has received, at least as far as the writer was able to ascertain from the bibliographies at his disposal, no further treatment from Assyri- ologists. It certainly does not seem out of place to gather together the facts concerning date culture from the various documents now at our disposal in an attempt to gain a better understanding of this important factor in the economic life of the early inhabitants of the Mesopotamian Delta.