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2009 The KHALUB-tree in : Myth or Reality? Naomi F. Miller University of Pennsylvania, [email protected]

Alhena Gadotti

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Recommended Citation (OVERRIDE) Miller, N.F. & Gadotti, A. (2009). The KHALUB-tree in Mesopotamia: Myth or Reality? In A.S. Fairbairn & E. Weiss (Eds.). From Foragers to Farmers: Gordon C. Hillman Festschrift (pp. 239-243). Oxford: Oxbow Books.

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Disciplines Archaeological Anthropology

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As author you are licenced to make up to 50 offprints from it, but beyond that you may not publish it on the World Wide Web until three years from publication (June 20 12), unless the site is a limited access intranet (pass­ word protected). If you have queries about this please contact the editorial department at Oxbow Books ([email protected]). An Offprint from FRoM FoRAGERS TO FARMERS GoRDON C. HILLMAN FESTSCHRIFT

Edited by AndrewS. Fairbairn and Ehud Weiss

OXBOW BOOKS Oxford and Oakville Contents

Introduction: In honour of Professor Gordon C. Hillman ...... vn Publications of Gordon C. Hillman ...... xi List of Contributors ...... xv List of Reviewers ...... xix Tabula Gratulatoria ...... xx

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS Gordon Hillman and the development of archaeobotany at and beyond the London Institute of Archaeology DavidR. Harris ...... I 2 Gordon Hillman, Abu Hureyra and the development of agriculture A ndrewM T. Moore ...... S 3 Gordon Hillman's pioneering influence on Near Eastern archaeobotany, a personal appraisal George Willcox ...... 15

T HEORY AND :tvfETHOD 4 On the potential for spring sowing in the ancient Near East Mark A. Blumler andJ. Giles Waines ...... 19 5 Domestication and the dialectic: Archaeobotany and the future of the Revolution in the Near East JoyMcCorriston ...... 27 6 Agriculture and the development of complex societies: An archaeobotanical agenda Dorian Q Fuller and Chris J. Stevens ...... 37 7 Dormancy and the plough: Weed seed biology as an indicator of agrarian change in the first millennium AD Martin Jones ...... 58

ETHNOBOTANY AND EXPERIMAENT 8 Wild plant foods: Routine dietary supplements or famine foods? Fusun Ertug ...... 64 9 Acorns as food in southeast Turkey: Implications for prehistoric subsistence in Southwest Asia Sarah Mason and Mark Nesbitt ...... 71 10 Water chestnuts (Trapa natans L.) as controversial plants: Botanical, ethno-historical and archaeological evidence Ksenija Borojevic ...... 86 Vl Contents

11 Evidence of domestication in the Old World grain legumes Ann Butler...... 98 12 Einkorn (Triticum monococcum L.) cultivation in mountain communities of the western Rif (Morocco): An ethnoarchaeological project Leonor Pei'ia-Chocarro, Lydia Zapata Peiia, J esus Emilio Gonzalez Urquijo and Juan Jose Ibanez Estevez ...... 10 3 13 The importance and antiquity offrikkeh: A simple snack or a socio-economic indicator of decline and prosperity in the ancient Near East? AmrA l Azm ...... 112 14 The doum palm (Hyphaene thebaica) in South Arabia: Past and present Dominique de Moulins and Carl Phillips ...... 117 15 Harvesting experiments on the clonal helophyte sea club-rush (Bolboschoenus maritimus (L.) Palla): An approach to identifYing v ariables that may have influenced hunter-gatherer resource selection in Late Pleistocene Southwest Asia Michele Wollstonecrofl ...... 127 16 Aspects of the archaeology of the Irish keyhole-shaped com-drying kiln with particular reference to archaeobotanical studies and archaeological experiments Michael A. Monk and Ellen Kelleher ...... 139

ARcHAEOBOTANY 17 Glimpsing into a hut: The economy and Society of Ohalo II's inhabitants Ehud Weiss ...... 15 3 18 Reconstruction of local woodland vegetation and use of firewood at two cave sites in southwest Anatolia (Turkey) Daniele Marti noli ...... 161 19 Vegetation and subsistence of the Epipalaeolithic in Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt: Charcoal and macro-remains from M asara sites Ursula Thanheiser ...... 171 20 The uses of Eryngium yuccifolium by Native American people Marie Scott Standifer; Jenna Tedrick Kuttruff, and Shirley Cotter Tucker ...... 179 21 Bananas: Towards a revised Jean Kennedy...... 190 22 The advance of agriculture in the coastal zone of East Asia Elena A. Sergusheva and Yury E. Vostretsov ...... 2 05 23 Knossos, Crete: Invaders, "sea goers", or previously "invisible", the Neolithic plant economy appears fully-fledged in 9,000 BP Anaya Sarpaki ...... 220 24 Reconstructing the ear morphology of ancient small-grain wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp. parvicoccum) . Kislev ...... 235 25 The KHALUB-tree in Mesopotamia: Myth or Reality? Naomi R Miller and A lhena Gadotti ...... 239 26 The archaeobotany of cotton (Gossypium sp. L.) in Egypt and with special reference to Qasr Ibrim, Egyptian Nubia A. J. Clapham and P. A. Rowley-Conwy ...... ··· ·········· ························ ...... 244 27 Questions of continuity: Fodder and fuel use in Egypt Mary Anne Murray...... 254 28 Food and culture: The plant foods from Roman and Islamic Quseir, Egypt Marijke van der veen, Jacob Morales and Alison Cox ...... 268 The KHALUB-tree in Mesopotamia: Myth or Reality?

Naomi F Miller and Alhena Gadotti

Nowadays, it is the rare person who has direct experience against which one may assess references to this tree in any "waiting until the cows come home", or has noticed that new texts that have yet to be discovered. "the acorn doesn't fall far from the tree". For the cultures of The best-known reference to the KHALUB-tree comes antiquity, however, the natural world was an explicit source from the Sumerian composition "Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the of meaning and reference. The process of trying to identify Netherworld", which mentions a tree that was planted along the real-world referent for an unknown plant is both an intel­ the Euphrates; in the beginning, "there was a solitary tree, a lectual puzzle and an act of empathy, as we try to envision solitaJy KHALUB-tree, a solitary tree, planted on the bank an ancient world, or at least a word. We hope that this small of the pure Euphrates" (Gadotti 2005, 305). In the composi­ offering reflects the same enthusiasm for nature and plants tion, not only is the tree originally infested by the terrible that has always informed the research and teaching of Gordon Anzud-bird, but also by a snake immune to charms, and by Hillman, to whom it is dedicated. a succubus. It is furthermore associated with the manufacture For the early of Mesopotamia, terms for of possibly ritual furniture for the goddess Inana and of a plants occur on a variety of media. Most of the extant texts ball and a stick, tools for Gilgamesh's ballgame (for recent are preserved on clay tablets inscribed in . Much treatments on the nature of the ballgame, see Cooper 2002, as one can write different languages with the Roman alpha­ Klein 2002). There is no evidence to support an identification bet, the cuneiform writing system, which has syllabic and of poplar, willow or other riparian species (see Table 25.1). logographic signs, was used for a variety of languages from Rather, the text indicates that the tree is planted, i.e. it occurs different language families (e.g. Sumerian, ofunknown affin­ in the context of cultivation. Given its role in the story, the ity; Akkadian, a Semitic language; Hittite, an Indo-European term KHALUB could refer to a mythical tree, but this seems language). Plant names occur in such diverse contexts as unlikely; the mythical uses of the wood are similar to those word lists, administrative and economic texts, ritual texts reported in more fact-based texts. and royal inscriptions among others. Unfortunately for The existence of a real KHALUB-tree is made evident plant identifications, meanings can be assigned to words by its appearance in administrative texts from the Early arbitrarily, the referents of words may change over time, and Dynastic and III periods (mid to late third millennium ancient Mesopotamian texts that describe or allude to plants BC), as well as in the royal inscriptions of the rulers of La­ are ambiguous at best. It is therefore a methodologically gash, which date to the same period. For example, in a late sound approach to base identifications on a combination of third millennium royal inscription, it is specified that "from phytogeographical, epigraphic, etymological, iconographic, Gubin, the land of the KHALUB-tree, he () brought ethnobotanical and archaeobotanical evidence. When one of down the KHALUB-wood and he fashioned it into the Sharur us (Gadotti) approached the other (Miller) with epigraphic bird" (Gudea St. B vi 45-46, in Edzard 1997). The toponym information about the Sumerian KHALUB-tree (Akkadian Gubi is attested only sporadically in the Sumerian texts of khaluppu), we decided to follow the trail as far as it would the third millennium BCE (see Edzard et al. 1977, 62). In go. Although most of the lines of evidence can be used, it addition to the above-mentioned passage, where the place will be seen that a definitive identification still eludes us. name is writtengu-bi-in", one should mention Gudea Statue Nevertheless, this exercise demonstrates how to investigate D iv 9 (Edzard 1997), where Gubin is written gu-bi'", and a the problem, spells out the qualifications and unavoidable Sumerian composition attested in Ur III and Old Babylonian ambiguities that must be dealt with, and provides a base texts known as the "Curse of Agade" (Cooper 1983), where 240 Naomi F Miller andA/hena Gadotti the place name is writtengu-bi-na, gu-biki-na, and gu-bi-na (i) It seems that the tree was not particularly big, as it came (line 152). At least three different locations have been sug­ in small logs (e.g. Lanfranchi and Parpola 1990, no. 208, gested for this place name; an area near (the region Marzalm 1991, no. 46; of the Jebel Akhdar, ) Bactria or the Zagros (Edzard (ii) The KHALUB-tree produces se (seeds or fruits) which are et a/. 1977, 62 for bibliography). In the "Curse of Agade" edible; the seeds and leaves of the tree appear in medical Gubi was the homeland ofthe Gutians, who, according to the texts (CAD KH 56 s. v. khaluppu); (iii) By the Neo-Assyrian period, there is some indication that tradition represented by the composition, were responsible the KHALUB-tree (written u-lu-pu) was grown in northern for the demise of the Agade empire. Some scholars place Mesopotamia in controlled environments, namely in orchards, gu-bi-(in}*' in the area because it is mentioned as evidenced by the so-called Harran Census (CAD KH 56 in the Gudea inscription along with Magan, (the s. v. kmluppu, Fales 1973). Indus valley area) and (Bahrein); and in another inscription, KHALUB-wood is said to be imported from Bothmythical and non-mythical KHALUBrefertotheuseof Magan (Cooper 1983, 249). The "Curse ofAgade" mentions the wood for furniture and small objects, and the presumably gu-bi-(in}*' as the mountain home of the Gutians, so "Wilcke small or shrubby tree may be planted. The mythical version ( .. .) now suggests the Zagros area" (Cooper 1983, 149). Gubi is further associated with water. The non-mythical tree may as the provenience of the KHALUB-tree is consistent in grow either wild orin orchards, has useful fruits (we presume texts dating from the third to the first millenium BCE (Early the non-botanical concept of a fleshy fruit) and/or seeds with Dynastic to Neo-Assyrian times). medicinal use, and it seems to be widespread in west Asia. Ur III administrative texts give a coherent picture; the Miller's first thought on hearing the textual evidence was, KHALUB-tree was used for chairs, legs of beds, tables and "must be some kind of Prunus (stone fruit)", but it is worth stools, and its scraps were used to make vessels. Occasion­ considering some alternatives. ally, these (fruit and/or seed) of the tree were listed as food Many scholars tentatively translated "oak" for this term offerings along with dried fruit (apples and raisins; see, among (see CAD KH 55- 56 s. v. halupp u), but there is no specific others, Pettinato and Picchioni 1978, no. 85, Waetzold eta/. evidence provided for this (e.g. see Glassner 2000, 26, Powell 1994,no. 739). 1987, 146, van de Mieroop 1992, 159, Veldhuis 1997, 156). Furthermore, Sumerian literary texts from the Old Ba­ Table 25.1 provides a non-exhaustive list of some common bylonian period (2000- 1600 BCE) sometimes associate the trees of west Asia. It summarises some of the key traits men­ KHALUB-tree with the TASKARIN (Akk. taskarinnu), tioned in the texts in relation to various taxa; types associated which is thought to be boxwood (Buxus sp.); see for instance with flowing water, some of the most common genera of "Gilgamesh Enkidu and the Netherworld" (Gadotti 2005, the west Asian woodland Guniper, pine, oak, pistachio) and Shaffer 1963 ), "Gilgamesh and Huwawa," version A (George several fruit-producing trees. 1999, 149-161). Based on the clues provided by the ancient texts it would Finally, Akkadian sources also provide useful information be hard to decide among Ziziphus sp. (e.g. Z. jujuba (L. )Lam., about the tree itself:

Taxa• AssociatedwiOt Plan.tedor Small or Wood Fruit SeedwiOt flowing water grows wild sluubby habit (at fme- jleslty medicinal least some) grained uses** Riparian types-Populus (poplar), Salix yes yes tamarisk, willow tamarisk no no (willow), Tamari.x (tamarisk), Platanus (plane) Phoenix dactylifera (date p aim) yes (also watered) planted no no yes yes Conifers- Juniperus Guniper), Pinus N o wild only juniper (some) juniper juniper "berry" juniper (pine) "beny" Quercus (oak) N o wild only yes no no; edible nut no Pistacia (pistachio) N o yes yes yes no; edible nut yes Prunus spp. (stone fruits-almond, no (but watered) y es yes yes yes (except yes cherry, plum, et al.) almond) Pome fruits~us (apple, pear), no (but watered) yes yes yes y es yes Cydonia (quince), et al. Elaeagnus angustifolia (Russian olive) no (but watered) yes yes; frequently medium yes yes spiny Ziziphus Gujube, et al.) no (but may yes yes; frequently no yes yes bewatered ) spiny • Note that many of these trees have relatively undisputed names in Akkadian or Sumerian: poplar, willow, tamarisk, date, juniper, oak (Akkadian only), pistachio, almond, apple, pear, quince (Postgate 1983; Veldhuis 1997). **Some parts of nearly all of these plants have some medicinal use reported; the seeds of the riparian species are not among them. For these, and oak, pistachio, Russian olive, stone and pome fruits, see entries in the Flora ofIraq ; for the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) and jujube (Zizyplms jujuba), see http :l/www.hort.purdue. edu/newcrop/Indices/index_ ab. html Table 25.1. Nonexhaustive list of some common tree genera ofwe st Asia and traits associated with KHALUB in the texts. The KHALUB-tree in Mesopotamia: Myth or Reality? 241

Z. spina-christi (L.)Desf.), Elaeagnus angustifolia (Russian more, the distribution of a plant can change over time. This olive), Prunus spp., a genus that comprises the stone fruits is particularly true for any plant in west Asia, thanks to mil­ (Rosaceae, subfamily Prunoidae, including various wild and lennia of human manipulation of the environment. Therefore, domestic almonds, cherries, plums, peach, apricot), or even without further textual and archaeobotanical evidence, it is the pome fruits (Rosaceae, subfamily Pomoidae, including ap­ not possible to know how available P mahaleb would have ples, pears, quince). Generally, the spininess and shrubbiness been in any particular locale, because we do not know how of Zizyphus would tend to remove it from consideration. We common it was in the woodlands of west Asia and whether are not aware of any third millennium or earlier archaeobo­ or not it was planted in gardens at any given time period. By tanical finds of Russian olive wood or seeds, which suggests the end of the third millennium, however, the native wood­ it was not in common use. The names for pome fruits are lands had suffered severe deforestation, so perhaps the closer attested in Sumerian and Akkadian sources, but names for sources had been eliminated (see Miller 1997, 2004). Textual the stone fruits are less certain (Postgate 1987), even though references to the tree growing gardens may reflect its local both groups grow in the region. scarcity in the wild. In recent times, too, it has been planted Some of the non-unique characteristics of the KHALUB­ in orchards in Iraq (Townsend and Guest 1966). tree listed in Table 25.1 are consistent with Prunus. The In Iraq, Prunus mahaleb L. is described as "a small tree wood ofPrunus is valued for its fine grain. For m ostPrunus about 3m high" (Townsend and Guest 1966), although under species the fleshy fruit is eaten, for others (almonds) the ed­ some conditions it can grow up to 10-15m (Davis 1972). ible kernel is extracted from the pit. The leaves and seeds Townsend and Guest (1 966) comment that "the fruit is ed­ of many Prunus species are rich in phytochemicals, which ible and can be seen on sale in the local markets" in Iraq. make some types bitter or even toxic, but nevertheless they Unlike many members of the genus Prunus, whose leaves might be useful for medicines or poisons. In the absence of and seed kernels characteristically hav e prussic acid (which more detailed verbal descriptions, images, or etymological produces hydrogen cyanide), P mahaleb has relatively low evidence, even this suggestion is weak. There is one particu­ concentrations of that phytochemical. Nevertheless, it does lar species that warrants investigation on linguistic grounds; have chemical compounds that have a variety of pharmaco­ Prunus mahaleb L., called the mahlab cherry in American logical and other properties that can account for the recorded English (it is grown as an ornamental in the United States) ethnobotanical uses in Iraq and elsewhere (Duke 2004, Lane and the St. Lucie cherry. In modem Arabic it is ma/:zlab 1863, 625); for example, the leaves contain coumarin, an (Lane 1863, 625, Townsend and Guest 1966) and it was the anticoagulent (Patton et al. 1997). It is used in food, medi­ similarities in the consonants ofthe Arabic and ancient words cine, and perfume. that warranted continued investigation. For assonance to be Sour cherries have been part of the pharmacopoeia in more than mere coincidence, however, both phonological and west Asia since Classical times. Dioscorides (De materia morphological differences between KHALUB/khaluppu and medica, Book 1, 157), mentions the medicinal uses of Pru­ ma/:zlab would have to be reconciled. nus cerasus (a related species, assuming P cerasus L. var. avium is meant) in treating stomach ailments (Gunther 1934, 82- 83). Later, the therapeutic powers of sour cherries were Botany and ethnobotany ofPrunus mahaleb alluded to by the Greek physician Galen, who, in Book 2 According to the references collected by the editors of the of his treatise De alimentorumfacultatibus discussed their ChicagoAssysrianDictionary, the wood ofthe khaluppu tree astringent quality (Grant 2000, 123). was imported from Gubbin (= Gubin, Gubi), Makan (= Ma­ Like the fine-grained wood of other cherry species, that gan) and Meluhha. Yet the genus Prunus occurs throughout of P mahaleb could be used to make objects. It is not quite the woodlands of Asia. In particular, the distribution of P as fine as boxwood, but it is more similar to boxwood than maha feb extends from Central Europe to , and in Iraq to the coarser-grained oak (see, for example, micrographs in it grows in upland regions at 1300-1800m (Townsend and Schweingruber 1990). Guest 1966, 170). It does not grow along the coast. One ex­ Given the vagaries of common names and changes over planation for the broad and somewhat disparate source areas the centuries, KHALUB might sometimes refer to other wild for khaluppu could simply be that the wood was transported cherries, likeP microcarpa C.A.Mey. or Prunus cerasus L. ; over land from the western Zagros (Gubbin), and that at the note that in a 1913 publication, the botanist Handel-Mazzetti eastern edge of its range it was harvested inland, brought to noted "the Arabic name MEHLEB in use for P microcarpa" the coastal regions of the northern Indian Ocean (Makan, in Iraq (Townsend and Guest 1966, 167). Meluhha, Dilmun) and then shipped to Mesopotamia by boat along well-attested trade routes. One might also well ask, why would this wood be im­ Archaeological evidence ported if it was readily available closer to home? In answer Archaeological evidence for P runus mahaleb provides ad­ to this, it is first of all worth mentioning that the range of a ditional support for the possibility that it is the referent for plant says nothing aboutits frequency of occurrence. Further- KHALUB-tree. Consistent with both the foreign origin of 242 Naomi F Miller andAlhena Gadotti much of the wood used for furniture, as well as the likeli­ or one could make the argument that h-1-b is an Arabic folk hood that local wild trees might have been exploited for etymology that accrued to the ancient word. fruit, seed, and leaves, we might expect to come across This discussion does not require that there be a direct occasional finds of this species in archaeobotanical as­ etymological relationship between the Akkadian and Arabic semblages. Although the genus Prunus is common enough words. That is, Arabic might have received the word mahlab in the archaeobotanical assemblages of the Near East, the from some other Semitic language, although it does not ap­ wood ofPrun us mahaleb is not readily distinguished from a pear in either Biblical Hebrew, Babylonian Aramaic or Pal­ wide variety of other Prunus species (Schweingruber 1990, estinian Aramaic (Bany Eichler, pers. comm. 25 September 631). Prunus sp. seeds are also fairly often encountered in 2006). To make an argument for etymological relationship flotation samples, but when identified beyond genus, they between the Akkadian and Arabic terms, one would, however, are usually various kinds of wild almond. Aside from some have to explain the phonological transformation of kh to h finds in Europe (see Kroll 2004), Prunus mahaleb has been and p to b, as well as the addition of the prefix ma-. found in a nearly pure third-millennium deposit at Hammam According to Moscati (1964), an Akkadian p can be et-Twkman on the Balikh, a Euphrates tributary. Van Zeist transformed into an Arabic b. The velar and laryngeal h's and Waterbolk-van Rooijen (1992, 161) comment on the are more problematic. Moscati (1964, 44) suggests that the unusual nature of the find, and that "it might not be wholly phoneme kh in Proto-Semitic and Akkadian becomes h in accidental that [it is] from a site which was an important Hebrew, but remains kh in Arabic. However, there is at least administrative and commercial centre", one with access to one analogy that supports the possibility proposed here; the a locally rare commodity; the closest wild-growing trees are word for boatman allows one to go from a Sumerian and about 1OOkm distant from the site. Akkadian velar h to an Arabic laryngeal h (Table 25.2). The last task is to find some explanation for the prefix ma-. According to Moscati (1964, 80) in , Etymology, phonology and morphology "four principle meaning-variants are connected with the prefix m-: local, temporal, instrumental, abstract". Unfortunately, It cannot be assumed that plant names are stable over time and between different cultures and languages. Ambiguities can none of these are obviously applicable to turning a foreign result from our ignorance of the range of plant taxa included plant name into a recognisably Semitic one. We therefore under a common name. For example, the Sumerian word reluctantly conclude that our best efforts to connect the ERlN may refer to either juniper (genus Juniperus) or cedar ancient plant name KHA LUB/khaluppu to the Arabic word (genus Cedrus; see Hansman 1972); this linguistic ambiguity mahlab and thence to an identification withPrunus mahaleb is paralleled in American English, where the folk name of have not borne fruit. the juniper, Juniperus virginiana, is red cedar. Nevertheless, In the absence of a traceable relationship between the etymological relationships can persist over millennia, and Akkadian and modem Arabic words, the best one could say may be traceable through regular sound shifts. For example, about KHALUB is that the botanical and textual evidence is a Greek word for caper (Capparis sp.), aspalathus, is likely consistent with an identification ofPrunus, without being able to have come from a Semitic word with the three-consonant to rule out other fruit trees. For botanists and archaeobotanists, root s-p-1; the word persists in modem Arabic as sefala (with lessons to be learned are that there is a large body of ancient Sumerian and Akkadian texts that refers to plants, and estab­ phonological shifts of s to s and p to j) (Miller 1997). The similarity between the modem Arabic word for the lishing the validity ofa text-bas ed identification requires very mahlab cherry, mal:z/ab (Townsend and Guest 1966), and the close attention to specific linguistic comparisons of sound Sumerian KHALU B,Akkadiankhaluppu inspired this essay. and form. For Assyriologists, it is important to understand If mal:z/ab could be shown to have an etymological relation­ that the referents of common "folk" names of plants, both ship with KHA LUB!khaluppu, there is at least a plausible modem and ancient, may change over time and may not have argument to be made for associating the ancient plant name an exact scientific equivalent; botany and archaeobotany with Prunus mahaleb itself or a similar type of tree. Note can help narrow the range of plausible identifications; and that kh is velar, like German ch; h laryngeal, like Dutch g; without specific descriptions, secure identifications remain h is aspirated, closest to an English h. elusive. We hope our explication of the botanical, archaeo­ Grammatically, the root of mahlab should be h-1-b, which botanical, and linguistic evidence about KHALUB!khaluppu has many associations with milk. Lane (1 863, 625) comments that one of his Arab acquaintances told him "that it is the custom of some of the Arabs, previously to their milking, Sumerian velar >Akkadian velar > Arabic laryngeal to chew some [mahla b ], and to anoint with it the teat of the ll(KH) 1l (kit) 1l (b) animal" . If khalappu had a Semitic root, it would be kh-1- MA2.LAKH. >malakhkhu > mallaa/.l p. However, if Akkadian khaluppu is a loan word from the KHALUB > khaluppu > [ma]/.llab Sumerian KHALUB, as Liebermann (1976, 306) concludes, Table 2 5. 2 Boatman: A proposed analogyfor sound shiftfrom either it is unnecessary to explain the association with milk, velar to laryngeal h. The KHALUB-tree in Mesopotamia: Myth or Reality? 243 alerts the reader to the potential for collaboration between Lane, E. W. (1863) An A rabic-English lexicon, book 1, part 1. archaeobotanists and Assyriologists. Edinburgh, Williams and Nargate. Lanfranchi, G. and Parpola, S. (1 990) The correspondence ofSar­ gon II, part II. State Archives of , 5. Helsinki University Acknowledgments Press, Helsinki. We would like to thank Bany Eichler for his insightful and Liebermann, S. (1976) The Sumerian loanwords in Old Babylonian Akkadian (HSS 22). Missoula, Montana, Scholars Press. critical comments on earlier versions of this manuscript. Marzahn, J. (1991) Altsumerische VeTWaltungstexte aus / Joseph Lowry gave advice about Arabic and Arabic sources, Lagai. Vorderasiatische Schriftdenkmaler der Staatlichen Mu­ and Philip Jones directed us to useful sources in the Baby­ seen zu Berlin, n.F. 9. Berlin, Akademie-Verlag. lonian Section at the University of Pennsylvania Museum. Miller, N. F. (1995) TheAspalathus caper. Bulletin ofthe American Any misinterpretations are ours alone. Schools ofOr iental Research 297, 55-60. Miller, N. F. (1997) The macrobotanical evidence for vegetation in the Near East, c. 18 000/1 6 000 be to 4 000 be. Pa/eorient References 23(2), 197-207. CAD (1 956) Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, KH. A. 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