Wheat and barley in Mesopotamia: Terminology, cultivation, and use according to cuneiform sources and against the background of paleobotanical and ethnographical evidence

美索不达米亚的小麦和大麦：根据楔形文字来源并以古植物学和人种学证据为背景的术语、栽培和使用

• 批准号: 259147815
• 负责人: Dr. Aron A. Dornauer
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Institut für Assyriologie und Hethitologie
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2013-12-31 至 2017-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/259147815?language=en
• 关键词: Wheat; barley; Mesopotamia; Terminology; cultivation

The cultivation of grains forms the economic basis for life in the civilizations of ancient Mesopotamia. However, despite abundant relevant data, no up-to-date treatment of the grain species exists today. In an interdisciplinary approach, the project focuses on the cuneiform and paleobotanical evidence of the barley, glume wheat and naked wheat species in Mesopotamian Bronze Age. According to the results of paleobotanical and ethnographical investigations, the characteristics of specific cereal crops affect cultivation and processing. Thus the evidence regarding cultivation and processing selected from cuneiform sources in Sumerian and Akkadian, allows conclusions about the particular cereal species. The key project objectives are to collect the specific botanical, agricultural and processing characteristics of the particular cereal crops, to identify Akkadian and Sumerian words for cereal crops as precisely as possible, and to analyse them in their ecological, agronomical and ecotrophological environment. "Specific botanical characteristics" are colour, size, taste, habitat, geographical distribution, stress tolerances, and growing season length."Specific agricultural characteristics" are the dates of sowing, harvesting, and threshing as well as the rate of sowing, the yield, and the seed/yield rate, the scale and mode of irrigation, as well as the system of crop rotation. "Specific processing characteristics" mean whether the specific cereal species were processed for animal or human consumption, to which kind of food the cereals were processed, and how they were processed. The project's goals are: 1. The Sumerian and Akkadian textual evidence from Bronze Age Mesopotamia and Syria concerning the specific botanical, agricultural and processing characteristics of barley and wheat species is collected and classified against the background of paleobotanical and ethnographical research. Thus, the scientific community is supplied with comprehensive tables of characteristics of cereals according to the paleobotanical, ethnographical, and cuneiform evidence. 2. The Akkadian and Sumerian terms for barley (SHE and its compounds), glume wheat (ZÍZ and its compounds, as well as SIG15), and naked wheat species (KÌB and its compounds, as well as burrum) should be identified as precisely as possible. Therefore, we compare the textual evidence with the paleobotanical and ethnographical data concerning the specific botanical, agricultural and processing characteristics. 3. The collected information concerning specific characteristics allows conclusions about the ecological, agronomical, economic, and ecotrophological environment of ancient Mesopotamian agrarian societies. In this context, the data first has to be analysed and then critically compared with the current ethnographical models regarding the workflow in traditional field cropping and post-harvest activities, in order to elaborate the diatopic and diachronic differences and similarities.

在古代美索不达米亚的文明中，谷物的种植构成了生活的经济基础。然而，尽管有丰富的相关数据，但目前还没有最新的谷物物种处理方法。该项目以跨学科的方法，重点研究美索不达米亚青铜时代大麦、颖小麦和裸小麦物种的楔形文字和古植物学证据。根据古植物学和民族志调查结果，特定谷类作物的特性影响种植和加工。因此，从苏美尔人和阿卡德人的楔形文字来源中选择的关于种植和加工的证据允许关于特定谷物物种的结论。该项目的主要目标是收集特定谷类作物的植物学、农业和加工特点，尽可能准确地确定阿卡德语和苏美尔语中的谷类作物词汇，并在其生态、农艺和生态营养环境中对其进行分析。“植物学特性”是指颜色、大小、味道、生境、地理分布、耐胁迫性和生长季节长度。“具体农业特征”是指播种、收获和播种的日期以及播种率、产量和种子/产量比率、灌溉的规模和方式以及轮作制度。“特定加工特性”是指特定谷物品种是否被加工用于动物或人类消费，谷物被加工成哪种食物，以及它们是如何加工的。该项目的目标是：1。从青铜时代美索不达米亚和叙利亚的苏美尔人和阿卡德人的文本证据有关的特定植物学，农业和加工特性的大麦和小麦物种收集和分类的背景下，古植物学和民族志研究。因此，科学界根据古植物学、人种学和楔形文字证据，提供了谷物特征的综合表格。2.应尽可能准确地识别阿卡德语和苏美尔语中关于大麦（SHE及其化合物）、颖壳小麦（ZEZZ及其化合物，以及SIG 15）和裸小麦种（KEZB及其化合物，以及burrum）的术语。因此，我们比较了有关具体的植物，农业和加工特点的古植物学和民族学数据的文本证据。3.收集到的关于具体特征的信息可以得出关于古代美索不达米亚农业社会的生态、农艺、经济和生态营养环境的结论。在这方面，首先必须对数据进行分析，然后将其与目前关于传统田间种植和收获后活动工作流程的民族志模型进行批判性比较，以阐述历时和历时的差异和相似之处。