Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies

Table of Contents - June 2012 - Volume 75, Issue 02  

Articles

Meat offerings and their preparation in the state cult of the Assyrian empire*

Salvatore Gaspaa1 c1

a1 University of Padua

Abstract

This study examines the treatment of meat in Assyrian state cult of the first millennium bce. To this aim, the administrative and cultic textual evidence about offerings of whole animals, meat cuts, and meat-based culinary preparations are considered here. After an overview of the meat offerings in the ritual action of a series of Assyrian cult ceremonies, the enquiry focuses on the culinary treatment, presentation, and manipulation of the sacrificial meat; the evidence discussed reveals that the culinary treatment of the meat offered differed according to the deity and the cultic occasion.

Keywords

  • Meat offering;
  • Assyrian cult;
  • God's banquet;
  • Culinary treatment;
  • Offering presentation;
  • Distribution criteria

Correspondence:

c1 gaspasal@libero.it

Footnotes

* This study is part of my research into “Foods and food practices in Assyria” at the University of Naples “L'Orientale”, and the collaboration with the Italian multi-university research programme “Lexicon of food and food practices in the Ancient Near East” (2007–2010) for the Neo-Assyrian lexicon of food. I am indebted to the anonymous reviewer for comments, criticisms and suggestions.

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