COURTESY JOHN GREGORY DRUMMOND, BAS
The smell and spices of gingerbread are a sure way to warm your home during the holidays. Although gingerbread is old—it may have been introduced to Europe as early as the 11th century—it certainly isn’t ancient. For this Test Kitchen, we are trying something a little different and using an old family recipe to recreate an ancient object: a cuneiform tablet! So grab your stylus, because it’s time to become a scribe!
Our model tablet comes from Mari, an ancient Syrian city located along the Euphrates River. Dating to the 18th century BCE, during the reign of King Zimri-Lim, it describes the building of an icehouse in a nearby city. Of course, the original tablet is made of clay, which fortunately has a consistency remarkably similar to that of gingerbread.
Unless you happen to be an Assyriologist, however, you probably have little idea how to write ancient cuneiform characters. For a tutorial, visit biblicalarchaeology.org/tastytablets for a step-by-step guide to making your first cuneiform tablet. Then you’ll be ready to start baking!
A note on this recipe: Lebkuchengewürz is a common spice in Germany that can be purchased in the U.S. either online or at specialty stores. It is easily replaced, however, by combining pinches of cloves, cardamom, mace, and allspice. Lebkuchengewürz is a mixture of around a dozen spices, so it will give you a more complex flavor. Either spice combination works well for this recipe.—J.D.
The smell and spices of gingerbread are a sure way to warm your home during the holidays. Although gingerbread is old—it may have been introduced to Europe as early as the 11th century—it certainly isn’t ancient. For this Test Kitchen, we are trying something a little different and using an old family recipe to recreate an ancient object: a cuneiform tablet! So grab your stylus, because it’s time to become a scribe! Our model tablet comes from Mari, an ancient Syrian city located along the Euphrates River. Dating to the 18th century BCE, during the reign of King Zimri-Lim, it […]
