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DII.MUN

Mesopotamian teyt‫"ﻱ‬, These provide cvidcnce that the date-palm, a native of Dilnun
١ccorling to lcgend, was being cultivatcd; it appears in Mcsopotamia fronm the first U
dynasties and the writings of the third Ur dynasty dcscribe the planting of palm groves. The
conposition and yicld of these palm groves. The composition and yicld of these palm groves
is thcn calculated hpy the nu١ber of standard si٧e basketfuls obtained fronm cach trce. The
١exts tell ١٤ that the practice of artificial pollination was current in th١١t period''. Oher later
texts, sucl as the Iiamourabi Law (١792 1750) or thosc relating to th١e Eana of Uruk;
559 520'٩ ae‫ﺝ‬l with technical or lcgal qucstions connceted with thc up-kcep of painm
grove;2. Today intensive ciltivation is carried out in the U.S.٨., Mcditcrranean Africa and
the Middle L‫ﻤ‬ast, particularly Ira,30.

3.b Dnte-paln produets

Bccause it provides nunerous etremcly useful products the datc-palnm (gisimmaru in
Accadian)?' was, ad still is, very successful.

AIl its parts are usable and have been utilised to the full since carliest times; the trunk
is often the only timber for building in these regions; the leavse (aru) and their stems
(husabu) are uscd in basketry, rope-making, constructing furniture, roofs and gates
(present-day barastis); and fibres at the base of the leaves (managa in Accadian, lif in
Arabic) for lower quality ropes and cleaning implements, brushes, brooms and paint-brushes
in Egypt; the spathes (summutu) are made into brooms or given to cattle as fodder; the tree's
terminal bud (sag-gisimmar) and the suckers (liplippu) from which, when cut, sap known as

16 The date-palm in ancient Egypt has been studied by WALLERT 1962. With regard to dates
and date-palms in Mesopotamian texts see L‫ﻤ‬NDSBERGER 1967; THOMPSON 1949 CAD,
vol, G (atricle gisimmaru): 102 ٦04٠ F٥٢ Aramaic and Hebrew texts, see LOW 1923 1١ 306
362.

1٦ sCHEIL 1913.
18 COOUERILL‫ﻤ‬T ٦968, The palm groves and land under cultivation belonged to the temple of

the Eanna of ‫ﺍ‬ruk and were ieased to a farmer-general who entrusted them to sub-tenaits
selected by him.
19 For the establishment and maintenance of a present-day palm-grove see MNIER 1973:
113.٢
20 For the distribution and impotrance nowadays of the date-palm see MNIER 1973: 14 - 19
diagram no. 2 187٤.
21 Gisimmar in Sumerian: the normal but not the only name for the date-palm which is
referred to in Cuneiform tetxs by several names (according to its condition, age) or poetic
synonyms. CAD vol. G 102, sub. a (poetic synonyms) sub. c (reference to technical names);
Reallexikon der Assyriologie ١١ (1933): 196.
For the various names of the date-palm in Ancient Egypt see WALLERT ٦962: 33 34.
22 The Accadian vocabulary for by-products of the date-paim is to be found in CAD vol, G: 102
sub, c: some references are made to hithetro unpublished articles, The critical study of
these terms from the Cuneiform tets has been carried out by L‫ﻤ‬NDSBERGER ٦967. For
utilisation of by-products in Ancient Egypt see WALLERT 1962, 22 29.

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