BAR Test Kitchen: Ancient Syrian Date Pastries

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There’s no denying that I have a sweet tooth. Whether I am at home or abroad, I am always in search of desserts. From croissants to baklava, I’ve sampled many delicious dishes—but never before one from Bronze Age Syria.

For this dish, I journeyed back in time—to an ancient recipe from the site of Mari, Syria (c. 1775–1761 B.C.E.), and also back into the BAS Library to an article written by scholar Adam Maskevich.^a With a love for both the ancient Near East and cooking, Maskevich undertook some experimental archaeology. Using the work of the late Assyriologist Jean Bottéro, who translated numerous Babylonian recipes, Maskevich created a recipe for mersu, an ancient type of “cake” that involved mixing flour with a liquid (water, milk, oil, beer, or even butter).¹ Various inclusions (dates, pistachios, figs, raisins, and spices, such as cumin and coriander) were sometimes added. An exact recipe for mersu doesn’t exist, but archaeologists have been able to reconstruct it indirectly from administrative sources, such as the delivery notice from Mari during the reign of King Zimri-Lim:

(Received) 120 liters of dates
And 10 liters of pistachios,
for making mersu.
Meal of the king,
The 14th of the month of Kiskissu,
of the year that followed
the seizing of Ašlakkâ by King Zimri-Lim.²

Although no details are given—in this text or in others—about how to cook mersu, we learn that it was mixed in large pots and often prepared by specialists in Mari. We see that it varied by ingredients and came in different shapes and sizes.

Using this list from Mari and Maskevich’s recipe as my basis (modifying the latter only slightly), above is what I cooked up.

I hope this ancient dish gains some new fans. Enjoy!—M.S.

There’s no denying that I have a sweet tooth. Whether I am at home or abroad, I am always in search of desserts. From croissants to baklava, I’ve sampled many delicious dishes—but never before one from Bronze Age Syria.