Dates by Nawal Nasrallah

Author:Nawal Nasrallah
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Reaktion Books

Agate cylinder seal engraved with a scene showing the Persian king Darius I (reigned 521–486 BC) standing in a chariot and shooting arrows at lions. The scene is framed by date palms. The cuneiform inscription written along one side is in three languages – Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian – and translates as ‘Darius the great king’.

An impression of a third-millennium BC Akkadian cylinder seal at the British Museum shows a female figure sitting on a chair facing a male figure (a god, as identified by his horned headdress), with a date palm standing between them, and a serpent in the background undulating upwards. This scene suggested to some the temptation story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden but others see this as no more than a worshipper facing her god, and the date palm and the serpent as symbols of fertility. Whether Garden of Eden or worship act, the scene significantly depicts the date palm as an important tree worthy of being included in sacred rituals.

The date palm was seen as a divine gift, which possessed a special power. Dates were offered at marriage ceremonies as a symbol of plenty and fecundity, and fronds were used during magic ceremonies to protect from evil. The sorcerer would trace a circle around himself and whomever he was protecting with the words, ‘In my hand I hold the magic circle of Ea, in my hand I hold the cedar wood, the sacred weapon of Ea, in my hand I hold the branch of the palm tree of the great rite.’1

The date palm was their livelihood, and cutting it down was a crime punishable by law. According to Hammurabi’s law, ‘If a landlord cut down a tree in another landlord’s orchard without the consent of the owner of the orchard, he shall pay one-half mina of silver [approx. 10 oz/285 g].’ And yet the date palms of the conquered in times of war were cut down. A Sumerian text entitled Lament of Sumer describes how they were destroyed in vengeance:

The palm-trees, strong as mighty copper, the heroic strength, were torn out like rushes, were plucked like rushes, their trunks were turned sideways. Their tops lay in the dust, there was no one to raise them. The midribs of their palm fronds were cut off and their tops were burnt off. Their date spadices were torn out.2

The aim of the enemy was no doubt to depopulate the city and prevent people from resettling.

According to a Sumerian legend, the date palm was the first fruit tree created on earth. The myth tells how in the city of Eridu in southern Mesopotamia, Enki (Akkadian Ea), god of the freshwater ocean, created the date palm with the help of Inanna (Akkadian Ishtar) and a raven. The raven performed actions which would be allotted to man, such as climbing the palm and pollinating it, and using the shaduf to irrigate the date palm grove.

It is not surprising then that the date palm in Mesopotamia was

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