Babylonian Lamb Stew with Beets (1750–1730 BCE)

(babylonian-collection.yale.edu)

18 points by yubblegum3 days ago

2 comments

dvh52 minutes ago
Apparently their beets looked the same as ours:> The kind of beets used in such an ancient recipe should not be different from the beets we use today, even in name. We read in Dictionary of Assyrian Botany (by Campbell Thompson, 1948) that in the ancient Mesopotamian region it was called ‘shumundar,’ it was as red as blood, and has a spinning-top shape (pp. 49, 51).
- alephnerd49 minutes ago
 The recipe is also similar to Hamedh [0], a delicacy in Iraqi and Baghdadi Jewish households. The only major difference is the addition of tomatoes thanks to the Columbian Exchange, and rice - which would have not been cultivated or trade in West Asia yet.On that note, in Arabic, Farsi, and Hindustani the word for Tomato is essentially shared (tumatar/tamatimu)But anyhow, a lot of home cooking and traditional meals actually have a pretty long history.[0] - <a href="https://www.splendidtable.org/story/2000/12/12/hamad-iraqi-braised-lamb-with-beets-and-tomatoes" rel="nofollow">https://www.splendidtable.org/story/2000/12/12/hamad-iraqi-b...</a>
thataccount3 days ago
[flagged]
- tom_48 minutes ago
 Curious indeed that the Yale Babylonian Collection should, out of all the possible options, choose the cooking of Ancient Babylon. I wonder what we should read into this. I have some theories, but it might be dangerous for me even to mention that I have them.
- yubblegum3 days ago
 Cradle of civilization is not an odd culture. Babylon, meaning Gate of God, is one of the more profoundly influential urban civilizational clusters in human history.
 - thataccount3 days ago
 [flagged]
 - ahazred8ta2 days ago
 To an archeologist, 'civilization' refers to builders of walled cities inhabited by non-farmers with complex social sructure, division of labor, and usually some form of taxation. Highly moral hunter gatherers living in mud huts are not a 'civilization' in this context. Now you know.
 - thataccount2 days ago
 [flagged]
 krapp2 days ago
 The vast majority of Africans aren't hunter-gatherers living in mud huts. They have actual cities with highways and skyscrapers and everything.
 thataccount2 days ago
 I'm not arguing for what is a majority. I'm talking about the large portions of Africa that still live in a hunter-gatherer situations in mud huts.
 ahazred8ta2 days ago
 Villages in New Guinea, the Amazon, etc, the word you're looking for is 'cultures'.Cultures: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_Pottery_culture" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_Pottery_culture</a> & <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamnaya_culture" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamnaya_culture</a> & <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corded_Ware_culture" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corded_Ware_culture</a> & <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_people" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_people</a>Civilizations: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Great_Zimbabwe" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Great_Zimbabwe</a> & <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mali_Empire" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mali_Empire</a> & <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_Valley_Civilisation" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_Valley_Civilisation</a> & <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztecs" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztecs</a>The reason we're talking about the recipe is because it's one of the oldest recorded recipes, which is because they had writing.
 thataccount2 days ago
 >'cultures'.That's interesting, because I don't really think of a "culture" as smaller than a "civilization". I think of a culture being a necessary thread that runs through a civilization and without which there are no civilizations.
 krapp2 days ago
 Africa comprises an entire continent. There are not large portions of it (or "large swaths") where people still live as hunter-gatherers living in mud huts, for any reasonable definition of "large portion."
 thataccount2 days ago
 > for any reasonable definition of "large portion."I'm sure those relatively voiceless cultures will appreciate your minimization of their contribution to the peoples of Africa.
 krapp2 days ago
 You're the one who was claiming most Africans were hut-dwelling hunter-gatherers earlier. I'm not the one minimizing anything or anyone, just stop it.
 thataccount2 days ago
 Uh, what? I'm not sure where you are pulling that accusation from. I said very succinctly that I was not talking about what was the majority in Africa. I think you are confused.
 jfjdkdkdkd1 hour ago
 its sad that your ideology allows you to tell lies without an oz of shame.
 - BugsJustFindMe43 minutes ago
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