This dossier presents data from Babylonia on the process of harvesting and pounding sesame plants, through to their packaging for storage or transport, before the extraction of sesame oil from the seeds, as well as estimates of the quantities of sesame harvested. It offers a qualitative rather than a quantitative approach, as information is often provided by letters scattered over space and time. Correspondence often mentions good or problematic situations that make it possible to grasp which stages were critical during the harvest and what the Mesopotamians‘ fears were regarding the preservation of good-quality sesame.

1. Terminology: Harvesting and Collecting Sesame

Sesame was harvested for about two months because the sowing period also extended over two months on the one hand, and the maturity of the sesame could vary during the growing season on the other hand. A letter from Mari, FM 08 025, refers specifically to the maturity of sesame (pasālum[glossary=pasālum]).

It was fundamental to ensure that sesame plants did not reach sufficient maturity, which would mean that they would dry out. Then, the seeds would be lost when they “fell to the ground” (maqātum), resulting in a significant loss of the harvest (Reculeau 2009: 35-36) (ARM 33 227). The letter UET 5 073 from Ur mentions such a case in detail: a slave “let fall” (šumqutum) the sesame, and the situation must have been dire because it is described as an “emergency” (apputtum). Similarly, the letter Sumer 14 14 from Šaduppum states that the sesame must not fall; otherwise, the palace will blame the recipient of the missive for it since he was in charge of the workforce pulling out sesame.

There is no particular terminology for the sesame harvest, which is expressed by the same term for harvesting other cereals: buru14, Akkadian ebūrum. Another term is attested in the letter AbB 02 022: šuddunum, which means “to collect” dates and sesame.

However, a technical term, well documented in the Old Babylonian documentation on sesame harvesting, corresponds to “the tearing out” (nasāḫum[glossary=nasāḫum]) of seedlings (AbB 07 152, AbB 10 193, AbB 11 099, AbB 13 145, ARM 03 034, ARM 13 037). The question is whether the roots were also pulled out or not; see nisḫum[glossary=nisḫum], a term referring to the state of the sesame fields after the harvest.

Once sesame was harvested, the preparation of the barley fields could begin, as attested by the letter AbB 14 059 (Reculeau 2009: 36).

2. Workforce Mobilised for Sesame Harvesting

2.1. Sesame Crops Pullers

The administrative text VS 09 022 records a barley account for the wages (a2) of 150 workers (erin2), designated as “sesame pullers” (nāsiḫ šamaššammī[glossary=nāsiḫ šamaššammī]); this wage corresponds to 6 kor (1,800 l) of barley, thus 12 qa (12 l) of barley per person. The text dates to the 26^th of the Month VIII/November, which roughly corresponds to the end of the sesame harvest period. Another text, YOS 13 186, also mentions that 60 qa (60 l) of barley were given to a sesame puller and  is precisely dated to the 1^st Month IX/December. These two occurrences show that payment for the work usually was in barley and took place just after the harvest, once the workers had finished uprooting the sesame seedlings.

2.2. Agricultural Managers

The letter AbB 11 099, probably from Sippar, mentions agricultural managers (ensi2^meš, Akkadian iššiakkū) coming to collect sesame (10 men for one day to uproot the sesame of a field in an unknown area).

2.3. Hired Workers?

A summary of expenses from Larsa, YOS 05 095, dated from the end of the year, attests that 1 shekel (8.33 g) of silver was given to an individual to pull out sesame (ša aššum šamaššammī nasāḫim); this is undoubtedly a salary for the sesame harvest. This individual was probably recruited specifically for sesame harvesting, and was not a servant of any organisation in charge of this task.

2.4. Palace Servants and City Inhabitants

The letter Sumer 14 14 documents that all the available persons were enlisted to carry out the sesame harvest, in this case, from fields belonging to the palace of King Ibāl-pî-El II of Ešnunna. Servants of the palace (warad ekallim) and the available inhabitants of the city (mārū ālim ša ibbašu) had to carry out the harvest.

2.5. Slaves

According to UET 5 073, slaves also could be enrolled for sesame harvesting.

3. Quantification of Harvested Sesame

The administrative text from Larsa CUSAS 15 096, dated in the second year of Sîn-iddinam’s reign, provides information on the annual sesame production in the kingdom of Larsa (19^th century BC). The total expected quantity was about 900,000 litres of sesame seeds, but only half was delivered to the royal granary for unknown reasons. This data can be compared with the estimation of the annual production in Ĝirsu (between ca. 574,000 and ca. 804,000 litres of sesame) and Umma (ca. 240,000 litres of sesame) during the Ur III period (see A.1.1.03).

The letter of unknown provenance CUSAS 36 134 mentions a ratio of 210 qa (= 210 litres) per ikû, i.e. 583 litres/ha. It fits very well with the lowest estimates of sesame yield rates in Ĝirsu during the Ur III period (see table 1 in A.1.1.03).