1. Olive Oil Production According to Archaeobotanical and Textual Data

Cuneiform sources from the Early Bronze Age document the existence of large olive tree plantations within Ebla[geogr=Ebla]’s territory. In fact, Ebla was a major producer and exporter (especially to Mari[geogr=Mari]) of olive oil (see Dossier A.1.2.01).

According to archaeobotanical data, the horticultural production in the Levant and north-eastern Syria during the Middle Bronze age was still olive, as well as grape and fig (Zohary/Spiegel-Roy 1975: 324). However, we should not overestimate the intensity of olive cultivation during this period (Rattenborg 2016: 183) because the study of pollen assemblages on the Mediterranean coast suggests that the spread of olive vegetation derives from undomesticated taxa (Kaniewski et al. 2009: 1042-1045). The cultivation of olive (Olea europea) was then more restricted to an area close to the Mediterranean coast than during the Early Bronze Age (Riehl 2008: 48). Still, it should be pointed out that it is also attested in southern Anatolia, in the region of Tilbeshar (Kepinski 2009: 261). Remains of olive are absent east of the Euphrates, except nine olive stones from an Early Bronze Age context at Tell Taya, in Niniveh province (cf. Reade 1973: 187, also Riehl 2010: 31-32). Although it is possible that olive oil was produced further away from the settlements, and therefore crushed olive stones were never found (Riehl 2008: 48), we should notice that the Old Babylonian written documentation mentions only olive oil and not olives¹The occurrence of olives in the text Vincente Leilan 156 should perhaps be understood as olive oil..

The Akkadian term for olive is serdum[glossary=serdum] (already used in the documentation from Early Bronze Age Babylonia: see Dossier A.1.2.01), which follows the Sumerograms i3.giš. The attestations of serdum in the Middle Bronze Age documentation from east of the Euphrates remain sparse; it is mentioned, for example, in a list of oil disbursements at Šehnā[geogr=Šehnā/Šubat-Enlil] (SZE_303_1_1) in the Jazīrah region. The term serdum is also very rare in Babylonia. So far, we have found only one occurrence in a letter concerning the delivery of ghee and olive oil from Babylon (VS 22 83 [VAT 13169] dated to the Late Old Babylonian Period, 17^th century BCE).

This term appears more frequently in the early documentation from the palaces of Mari (modern Tell Hariri) on the Middle Euphrates (first half of the 18^th century BCE) and of Alalaḫ[geogr=Alalaḫ] (modern Tell Açana) north of the Orontes river (second half of the 18^th century BCE). According to both documentation from Alalaḫ and Mari, the region of the Orontes Valley exported only olive oil but never olives. Thus, oil was produced directly in the areas where the olive trees grew.

Production is attested in Alalaḫ, but the administrative texts from the site offer no precise information on cultivation practices. Paradoxically, the texts from Mari, written a little earlier, provide the best information concerning olive cultivation in the region of Alalaḫ and the transport of olive oil. The Mari palace depended on its north-western neighbours for imports of honey, wood, and olive oil, and therefore king Zimrī-Lîm decided at the end of his reign to acquire the settlement of Alaḫtum which later became the city of Alalaḫ (Durand 2002; Lauinger 2015). The king of Aleppo, Ḫammurāpi, owner of this land, allowed Zimrī-Lîm to manage the resources directly from this land. The reports regularly sent by Zimrī-Lîm’s manager in Alaḫtum, give information on olive oil.

According to both documentation from Alalaḫ and Mari, it is clear that the region of the Orontes Valley used to export olive oil but not olives.

2. Production of Olive Oil

A Mari letter from the reign of Yasmaḫ-Addu mentions Tunip[geogr=Tunip] on the bank of the Orontes river²Probably modern Tell Acharneh: Klengel 1995. See the others possibilities in Belmonte Marín 2001: 293f., s. v. Tunip. as a place where oil (only the sumerogram i3 for “vegetable oil”) was produced and could be purchased (ARM 05 063 = LAPO 16 220). Since Tunip depended on Aleppo, thus located in a region where olive trees grow, there is no doubt that it was olive oil.

Three administrative texts from Alalaḫ record amounts of oil (ATaB 30.12, 43.02 and 43.03) delivered from another settlement named Murar[geogr=Murar], presumably located south of the Orontes Valley, north of Ugarit³For the discussion on this location, see Lauinger 2015: 181.. This settlement formed part of the possessions of the rulers of Alalaḫ, who exploited these agricultural resources. According to Lauinger, this settlement did not uniformly cultivate crops but may have been engaged in specialized production (Lauinger 2015: 59). In this regard, the written documentation involving Murar concerns the cultivation of olives and the production of olive oil for Alalaḫ (see Zeeb 1998: 840; Zeeb 2001: 482). The term for oil in the three administrative texts is giš.i3, which could refer to both olive or sesame oil. But Murar is the place for olives according to a record of court proceedings concerning a problem with olives (serdum) AlT 120; therefore, the vegetable oil might refer to “olives” in this case, although this is, of course, uncertain.

Olive trees may grow for ten to twelve years before they set fruit (Zohary/Hopf/Weiss 2012: 114). It was, therefore, not enable to cut an olive tree in the process of growing. According to the Old Babylonian Ḫammurāpi’s code, whoever cut down a tree had to pay a heavy tax of 30 shekels of silver (CḪ §59). The reports sent by the manager of the Mari king Zimrī-Lîm based in Alaḫtum/Alalaḫ mention details on olive tree cultivation (Durand 2002: 82-83): officials in charge of agricultural land “counted the olive trees” (^gišse2-er-da-am im-nu-u2), which means that the fixed distance between individual trees allows inferring the area of the olive grove by calculating. But none of the texts from Mari or Alalaḫ gives us any details about olive oil pressing.

The harvest of olives in northern Syria begins at the end of October and till the end of December. Olives are initially green and turn black as they ripen. Olives must be processed within three days of harvest (due to their high amount of water) in order to obtain olive oil of the highest quality (O' Keefe 2000). Greener olives produce bitter and grassy oil, which is high in antioxidants. Ripe olives produce a milder, fruity-tasting oil. We don’t know whether green olive oil or black olive oil (or both) was produced in the Middle Bronze Age, but we should note that ripe olives have a higher yield than unripe olives and that they can be more easily picked. Furthermore, olive oil coming from northern Syria and delivered to Mari in the 10^th month in the Mari calendar, i.e. in January/February (ARM 09 006 and ARM 09 009, discussed below), was undoubtedly just pressed, suggesting that it was ripe olive oil.

However, olive cultivation was not the only source of oil in northern Syria. Sesame was also grown in Alaḫtum since Mari’s royal manager sent 300 parīsu measures (300 × 30 = 9,000 qa of sesame: see Metrological Systems) to Mari.

3. Olive Oil Purchase and Transport

Until Zimrī-Lîm had acquired Alaḫtum to gain direct access to northern Syria’s resources, olive oil was bought directly in Aleppo, the region’s main city where Alaḫtum also was located (ARM 26/1 22), or in the merchant city of Emar, one of the main goods redistribution centres for and from northern Syria (ARM 24 278, A.3362 = MARI 6 p. 77-78).

Some texts record the disbursement of 1 mina (ARM 26/1 022) or 1 half mina (ARM 24 278) of silver, that is to say 500g or 250g of silver, which are amounts for the purchase of olive oil; unfortunately, the exchange rate remains unknown since the quantity of olive oil purchased is not mentioned. The price was certainly fixed per jar of oil, as it is for wine (see Chambon 2009: 18); there, the fixed cost for an empty jar was 3 barleycorns of silver, added to the price of wine (or oil).

However, there is no evidence that olive oil was subsequently resold from Mari to various cities in northern Mesopotamia or Babylonia, as Steinkeller had assumed for the third millennium (2021b: 178; but see Benati/Bonechi 2020 : 44-45). The oil trade route on the Euphrates stopped at Mari, certainly so since the so-called šakkanakkum period (19^th century BCE). Occasionally, jars of olive oil were sent from Mari to military troops on a mission in Babylonia (MARI 3 n°110 (YA)). The reason for this is certainly that the southern regions could easily and cheaply obtain locally produced sesame oil. In this respect, did Mari import olive oil from the producing areas because local sesame oil production was insufficient for the palace and its dependents? It is difficult to answer, as the largest quantity of olive oil sent from Alaḫtum to the Mari palace amounted only to 277 jars, perhaps 2770 qa (see below), a negligible amount compared to the amount of sesame oil to be obtained from a year’s sesame harvest in the Mari district (106,200 qa according to ARM 22 276; see Dossier A.1.1.14). One gets the impression that Mari palace decided to get some olive oil from time to time, either through purchases (as seen above) or through shipments from Alaḫtum, directly operated by the palace.

4. Olive Oil as a Diplomatic Gift

The practice of gift-giving and receiving was highly formalised and regulated according to diplomatic and social rules among the rulers and high-ranking persons (Sasson 2012). For example, the king of Aleppo, as well as the king and queen of Karkemiš, sent olive oil jars together with wine jars and honey jars (ARM 31 229, FM 11 10) to the king of Mari. Each time, the number of olive oil jars is the same as the number of honey jars and corresponds to approximately 1/10^th of the number of wine jars. Does this mean that olive oil and honey had the exact market or ideological value, ten times more expensive than wine? Or (and it comes down to the same thing) does it mean that wine production is quantitatively ten times more important than olive oil production? Are there any other reasons?

5. Transport and packaging

In the documentation from Alalaḫ, olive oil delivered to the palace was usually measured in sila3 (see, for example, AlT 62) or in jars (see, for instance, AlT 56). But it could also be measured in “stones” (Akkadian abnum) as mentioned in the texts AlT 320 (57 ab-nim i3.giš “stone(s)^? of oil”,) and AlT 321 (183 ab-nim i3.giš , “stone(s)^? of oil”). This “stone measure” was also used for honey or syrup in a legal text (AlT 57 and ATaB 20.07, cf. discussion by Lauinger 2015: 88). The value of this measure is unknown, and Wiseman (Wiseman 1953: 93), the first editor of the Alalaḫ texts, suggested to understand “stone(s)” simply as “measures.” Lauinger pointed out that the two receipts of oil from Murar with this “stone measure” were found in a room (room 2) of the level VII palace with several stone vessels. The volume capacity of published examples of these vessels (by Woolley 1955: 295-296) appears to be five litres or less. Such vessels cannot be used for transport but as durable measuring standards. One might also think that these “stones of oil” refer to a kind of paste constituted from crushed olive which remains at the end of the pressing process, that could be compressed to briquettes, once it has dried, and used as a kind of heating fuel; but the two texts clearly mention “oil” (i3), and not “olives” (serdum). Moreover, it is difficult to understand how one could make honey or syrup pastes.

Olive oil from Murar was actually delivered in “jars” (dug, AlT 322) without any identification or volume indicated. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the capacity of these jars was standardised, because the administrative text AlT 322 records 2,768 jars as the allotment of (or from) Murar, owed by the “elders”, the decision-makers of that settlement⁴According to Lauinger’s new interpretation, Lauinger 2015: 90.. The amount of oil they owed had to be set precisely by the administration and was, therefore, based on the volume of standardised jars. Remark that this text was found in one of the basement storerooms (room 11) and not in room 2 of the level VII palace, where several stone vessels have been found (see above). Does this mean there were two different administrative offices, one receiving oil in “stones” and the other in “jars”?

FM 16 22, a letter from Mari, indicates that the (olive) oil from Alaḫtum had to be transported on donkeys, certainly not directly to Mari but rather to a harbour on the Euphrates, to be loaded onto ships for transport to Mari⁵See also ARM 27 65 = ARM 34 53, which mentions a caravan of donkeys carrying oil from Emar to Kurdā.. There is no evidence, as suggested by Steinkeller for the third millennium (2021b: 192), that once the donkey caravans reached their destination points on Euphrates, the animals were then loaded on boats travelling to the south.

Mari’s royal manager in Alaḫtum explains in another letter that he sent to Mari 160 (olive) oil jars designated as meḫsûm (FM 7 30). As the term meḫsûm seems to be derived from the Akkadian verb ḫesûm, “to cover, to cover up”, one could think of a type of covered vessel (Guichard 2005: 79-80). Usually, small jars are closed with clay corks, while large jars are covered with skins held with a string. So we are indeed dealing here with small jars with clay corks of a specific shape allowing them to be loaded on donkeys.

One may ask whether the olive oil was poured into other containers during its transport by ship down the Euphrates. Texts from the Terqa customs (published in ARM 13), found in Mari, inform the chief of the merchants in Mari of the taxes levied on the ships from upstream. They mention such containers, put up on boats and called našpakum[glossary=našpakum], each with a volume equivalent to 25 standard jars. But these mentions (ARM 13 68, 81, 92) are never related to oil, and we don’t know what they contained.

Therefore, olive oil was most likely transported in the same type of jars as those used for wine: a letter from a commercial agent to the king of Mari concerning the purchase of “jars for wine and oil” (dug geštin u₃ i3) seems to be made no distinction (A.3362, MARI 6, p. 77).

6. Receipt and Storage

The administrative text ARM 09 009 records 277 jars of oil (i3), which were sent by the royal field manager in Alaḫtum to Mari. The name of these jars and the type of oil are not indicated, but we can assume that they are meḫsûm jars full of olive oil because the manager used to send such jars and raw sesame (FM 7 30, see below). The volume of each jar is not specified either, but the total amount of oil is said to “correspond” (uppuš) to 2,077 qa “according to the big/great sūtu–measure” (ina ^gišban2.gal). If the measure qa is the same at Alaḫtum and Mari, each jar would have had a standard capacity of ca. 7.5 qa. But this assumption is still discussed, as other possible capacities, depending on how the “big/great sūtu-measure” is interpreted (see Metrological Systems). When arriving at the palace of Mari, the 277 jars received were brought to “the house of seals concerning oil” or “the house of sealed (texts) concerning oil” (bīt kunukkī ša šamnim) next to the so-called “cour du Palmier” courtyard M, i.e. to the west of the palace, in the king’s apartments area.

Two days later, 1200 qa of olive oil were delivered to the “storehouse” (bīt nakkamtim), whose location in the palace is unknown (ARM 09 006); 114 empty “jars” (karpatum, Sumerogram dug) are given to pour the oil into jars that were about 10 qa in size (= 1200 / 120; the remaining 6 jars probably served as payment for the delivery person). But it is not possible to know whether it is a part of olive oil from Alaḫtum delivered two days before.

Before King Zimrī-Lîm’s reign, the local term kirippum referred to a type of jar for olive oil but also for sesame oil, aromatic plants or flour (see (Charpin Forthcoming) and MARI 3 n°110). In the case of oil, the volume of such jars is 10 qa (TH.90.71), but in the case of others commodities, it can vary between 30 and 40 qa.

It was long assumed that there was another special room in the Mari palace for the storage of olive oil jars, called the bīt serdim, which is usually translated as “the room of olive oil” (ARM 22 265). But, as Sasson stressed, it can also be translated as “the house/room of the^? olive-tree”, not because olive oil was stored there but so possibly for its olive-tree decoration. Unfortunately, this decoration disappeared over time, and it is impossible to locate this room in the palace (Sasson 2004: 188). Actually, the only text (ARM 22 265) mentioning this room records a delivery of sesame oil and not olive oil.

Sesame oil was instead stored in large našpakum–jars in a room inside the palace called “the house of bitumen” (bīt kuprim), located most certainly north of courtyard B (north-eastern part of the palace), where the administration responsible for managing the flow of commodities in and out was. Therefore, it seems that there were at least two rooms for oil storage in the Mari palace: one for olive oil in the western part of the palace, the king’s apartments, and one for sesame oil in the eastern part, in the administration area. Does this mean that olive oil only was reserved for the needs of the king and his staff?

7. Consumption of Olive Oil

Surprisingly, olive oil was not associated with food outlays. The hundreds of texts concerning the king’s meals at Mari (of which only a part is published sporadically in different articles) do not mention olive oil once. In contrast, sesame oil was frequently used for the preparation of meals. A part of the sesame oil was also transferred to the perfumer for preparing scented oils, but we don’t know if they used olive oil for such maceration (Joannès 1993). Similarly, the texts only attest to sesame oil for lighting the lamps in the palace. But let’s be careful, of course, with the ex silentio argument.

Olive oil seems to have been mostly destined for cosmetic and medicinal purposes. For example, olive oil was used to anoint the female palace weavers for personal care and well-being (ARM 07 074). Olive jars were also sent to protect the skin of soldiers on mission in month I (April) in Babylonia in the south arid climate (MARI 3 n°110). A troop of 600 men, also fighting in Babylonia, were anointed probably with olive oil after eating a meal and before going to war, but it remains uncertain because the text (ARM XXVI/2 369) mentions only i3 “oil” and not i3.giš, “sesame oil”.

Olive oil is a particularly prestigious good, offered as a gift, like sesame oil, to guests, such as messengers on official missions; it seems to be carried in leather bags (^kušnuḫûm) (ARM 21 17).

Concerning medicinal uses, the documentation mentions the delivery of olive oil to craftsmen who were sick (MARI 3 n°78). Unfortunately, we do not know how they used it. This use of olive oil for medical purposes is well known from later medical texts (see, for example, AMT 96 4, BAM V 499).