CHAPTER FOURTEEN

ANIMAL SACRIFICE IN ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIAN

RELIGION

JOANN SCURLOCK

The relationship between men and gods in ancient Mesopotamia

was cemented by regular offerings and occasional sacrifices of ani-
mals. In addition, there were divinatory sacrifices, treaty sacrifices,
and even "covenant" sacrifices. The dead, too, were entitled to a
form of sacrifice. What follows is intended as a broad survey of
ancient Mesopotamian practices across the spectrum, not as an essay
on the developments that must have occurred over the course of
several millennia of history, nor as a comparative study of regional
differences.

REGULAR OFFERINGS I

Ancient Mesopotamian deities expected to be fed twice a day with-

out fail by their human worshipers. 2 As befitted divine rulers, they
also expected a steady diet of meat. Nebuchadnezzar II boasts that
he increased the offerings for his gods to new levels of conspicuous
consumption. Under his new scheme, Marduk and $arpanitum were
to receive on their table "every day" one fattened ungelded bull,
fine long fleeced sheep (which they shared with the other gods of
Baby1on),3 fish, birds,4 bandicoot rats (Englund 1995: 37-55; cf.

I On sacrifices in general, see especially Dhorme (1910: 264-77) and Saggs (1962:
335-38).
2 So too the god of the Israelites (Anderson 1992: 878). For specific biblical refer-
ences to offerings as "food" for God, see Blome (1934: 13). To the term tamid, used of
this daily offering in Rabbinic sources, compare the ancient Mesopotamian offering
term gimi "continual."
3 Note that, in the case of gods living in the same temple, this sharing could be
literal.
4 From the earliest times, both fish and birds were offered to the gods alongside the
more expensive sheep and oxen (see Blome 1934: 191-93, 202-8). In the Sumerian
disputation between the Bird and the Fish, the fish boasts: "I deliver altogether the
390 JOANN SCURLOCK

Heimpel 1990: 605-9), eggs (Beaulieu 1991), honey, ghee (clarified

butter), milk, the finest of oil, sweet kurunnu-beer (and) pure wine
"(plentiful) as river water" (Langdon 1912: 90 i 16-28; cf. 154 iv
28-57).
Nabu and Nanay favored a more balanced diet. They were to get
"every day" one fattened ungelded bull, sixteen long fleeced sheep
(which they shared with the other gods of Borsippa), various types
of birds, bandicoot rats, fish, "abundant vegetables, the delicacies
of the garden (and) ruddy fruits, produce of the orchard" (cf. Race.
119:20) dates, Dilmun dates, white figs and raisins in addition to beer
and wine (Langdon 1912: 1581160 vii 3-20; cf. 92 ii 26-35).
It is hard to judge Nebuchadnezzar's claims to generosity,S but
there is no reason to doubt that what was, so to speak, on offer, could
vary considerably from time to time and place to place. 6 Old Akka-
dian inscriptions from Elam boast of daily offerings of "one sheep
in the morning and one sheep in the evening" (Gelb and Kienast
1990: 325/326 ii 14-17 [Puzur-Insusinak]). In the Neo-Assyrian
period, by contrast, palace accounts indicate that the offerings of the
queen alone for one particular day came to "one ox, two sheep, one
spring lamb, one duck before Bel; one sheep before Nabu. One
female calf, one sheep before Sikutu. One sheep before Sarrat-
samme. Total one ox, one female calf, six sheep, one duck.,,7
In the Seleucid period, Anu, Antu, IStar, Nanay and the other gods
of Uruk were expected to eat four times a day, consuming among
them a total of twenty-one barley fattened sheep, four milk-fed male
lambs, twenty-five grass-fed sheep, two oxen, one calf, eight female
lambs, seventy birds of various kinds including ducks, four bandi-
coot rats and six eggs (of which half were from ostriches), in addi-
tion to 243 loaves of bread and equally gargantuan quantities of beer,

abundance of the pure shrine, even to the great offerings to lustrous Ekur" (Vanstiphout
1997: 583 II. 97-98). The bird's similar claim to fame he portrays in a rather different
light: "They pour out cool water in narrow jugs for you and then drag you away to the
daily sacrifice" (582 II. 43--44).
5 Nabonidus claims to have increased the number of sheep given to Sin and Ningal
by a factor of three (Bahl 1939: 166 ii 21-22).
6 Although the daily offerings seem to mount inexorably, the number of oxen killed
in connection with calendric rites may actually have decreased over time (Blome 1934:
63,69-70).
7 Offerings for the 6th of Du'uzu (Fales and Postgate 1992: no. 175 rev. 6-12).
Similarly: "Two oxen, one sisal&u-ox, thirty sheep, two ducks before IStar of the temple
... offerings of the month Abu, 11th day" (Fales and Postgate 1992: no. 181:3-4).