ABSTRACT
Dipartimento di Scienze delVAntichita, Universita di Padova, Piazza Capitaniato 7, 35100 Padova, Italy. E-mail: gb.lanfranchi@unipd.it
Abstract Reconstruction of minilivestock consumption in the Ancient Near East is ex tremely difficult due to the scarcity of precise archaeological data. However, it is attested to in a select group of texts stemming from ancient Israel and pre-Classical Syria and Mesopotamia. The dietary prescriptions prevailing in the bibli cal Hebrew culture generally forbade consumption of any kind of minilivestock, especially of insects and other small animals; contrarily, locust consumption was expressly allowed. The capture of locusts for consumption is attested to, as well as their killing to preclude severe crop damage, in some letters to Syrian and Assyrian kings (Ilnd and 1st millennium BC respectively). The high rank of the writers and addressees clearly underscores that locust consumption was an elit ist custom. Some hints for preparation of unique locust recipes are found in scattered texts of various kinds, with a special soup made from locusts and pome granates being perhaps the most renowned dish. In an 8th century BC NeoAssyrian relief on a palace slab there is a vivid representation of the introduc tion of sets of locusts fixed on spits to a royal banquet. Their careful representa tion as completely preserved animals suggests their preparation at the table, perhaps by sauteing or some other procedures. Still, one cannot exclude that their ostentatious presentation was a prelude to the making of the elitist locustand-pomegranate soup.
