Date Sex in Mesopotamia!

University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons

University of Pennsylvania Museum of University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Papers Archaeology and Anthropology

1999

Date Sex in Mesopotamia!

Naomi F. Miller University of Pennsylvania, [email protected]

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Recommended Citation Miller, N. F. (1999). Date Sex in Mesopotamia!. Expedition, 41 (1), 29-30. Retrieved from https://repository.upenn.edu/penn_museum_papers/32

This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/penn_museum_papers/32 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Date Sex in Mesopotamia!

Disciplines Near Eastern Languages and Societies

This journal article is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/penn_museum_papers/32 SC IE NCE & A R C H A EOLO GY

Date Sex in Mesopotamial

he R oyal Cemetery at Ur, a late 3rd millenniu m BC site in Iraq T (Mesopotamia), was excavated by Sir Leonard W oolley in the 1920s in a joint expeditio n of the University of Pennsylvania Museum and the B ritish Mu seu m . Among the Museum's sh ar e o f o bjects from the excavations was an assortmen t of sm all ornaments of gold, silver, carnelian, lapis lazuli, and bitumen (a ' tar-like sub stance). These were found together with n umerou s tiny lapis bead s near the skeleton of a woman, Puabi, who was clearly a person of great impo rtance. Woolley assembled th ese items into a single object th at he called Puabi 's "diad em " (Fig. r). The ornaments are a mixture of abstract, and plant remains from other Mesopotamian sites animal, and plant forms. As a paleoethnobot­ include date pits, as well as wood of the palm (see anist, I was most interested in the plant forms. Ellison et al. 1978). Many texts from this and later Several resemble stalks of grain, but with a differ­ periods concern date orchards and related matters; ence: they have little projections all around a there is even a word, defined in the Penn~lvania central stem, whereas Sumerian Dictionary , that wheat and barley ears refers to an item of have grains on either jewelry in the form of side of the stalk. A the flowering branch of second type looks like a the date palm. small fruiting bush. But Male and female what could they be? flowers of the date palm When one of the cura­ grow on different trees. tors of the currently In nature, about half traveling exhibit, "T rea­ the trees are male and sures from the Royal half are female (D. Tombs of Ur," asked Zohary. pers. com.). In me about them, 1 took a cultivated date grove, one last look before Fig. 1. Detail of Puabi's "diadem." Assembled Into a single however, the female the diadem went off article of Jewelry by Sir Leonard Woolley, the diadem- fruiting trees a.re polli­ display. believed to Include parts of several different pieces of nated by hand from just What r had never Jewe[ry-has now been taken apart. a few male trees. It is noticed, and what just a short conceptual proved to be the key to their identification, was step to human sexuality and fertility. Indeed, the that the "grain" and "bush'' had been mounted Mespotamian goddess Inanna, known for her part upside down for years. Double loops at one end in the "sacred marriage" ritual, considered herself show that these items are in fact pendants. Ori­ "the one who makes the dates be full of abundance ented correctly, the "grain" and "bush" could in their pa.nicles [flower clusters]" (Sjoberg t988). represent, respectively, the flowering and fruit­ Research for the traveling exhibit led to the ing branches of the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera; deconstruction of Puabi's diadem; its constitu­ Figs. 2a, band 3a, b). ent parts are now thought to be from several In ancient Mesopotamia, the date palm played different pieces of jewelry (Zettler and Horne an important role in the economy, and its physiol­ r998). We do nol know how the various ani­ ogy made it at least as important symbolically. Date mals, plants, and abstract forms were originally pits have been found in the Royal Cemetery itself, strung together, nor what the role of the lapis

SOIENCE & ARCHAEOLOGY 29 2o 2b 30 3b

Fig. 20. Gold ornament representing the flowering branch Fig 3o. Carnelian and gold ornament representing the of the male dote palm, formerly ldentlfted as an ear of groin. fruiting branch of the female date palm

Fig. 2b Flowering branch of the mole dote palm. Fig 3b. Fruiting branch of the remote date palm Courte5V of the Arboretum at Anzono State Urwers11y Courtesy of :he Arbore:um at Arlzono S'ote University

beads was. One as yet unidentified trefoil practically an advertisement for the good life form-three leaves and three fruit-may be in the afterlife. associated with the date branch representations (Fig. 4). The delicate double stringing loop of Naomi F. Miller the male matches that of one type of trefoil Research Specialist in Archaeobota'!y fruiting pendant; the slightly coarser loop of Museum Applied Science Center for Archaeology the female matches that of the other. The "male" and "female" date pendants were prob­ ably strung separately, maybe each with BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ellison, R.,J.M. Renfrew. D . Brothwell, and N. Fig. 4 Trefoil pendant; Seeley the stringing loops of t978. "Some Food Offerings from Ur, Excavated by this example resemble Sir Leonard Woolley, and Previously Unpublished." those of the mole Journal ofArchaeological Science 5:167-77. flowering branch pendant (see Fig. 2a). Zettler, Richard L., and Lee Horne, eds. 1998. Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur. Phila­ delphia: Un:iversity of Pennsylvania Museum.

corresponding trefoil pendants. It is perhaps Sjoberg, .Ake W. not surprising that so much jewelry symbolic of 1988. "A Hymn to lnanna and Her Self-Praise." fertility and renewal was put in a tomb that is journal of Cuneiform Studies4o:r65- 86.

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