What’s cooking at the Dunnu? Thoughts on an exotic, steatite-tempered pottery cauldron in the ‘kitchen’ of Grand Vizier Ili-pada at Middle Assyrian Tell Sabi Abyad, Syria

Abstract

The life of the Assyrian managers of the dunnu at Tell Sabi Abyad was not always a

provincial affair: the high officials and the owner of the dunnu, Grand Vizier Ili-pada,

enjoyed the luxury of foreign foods and materials. This is clear from textual sources about merchants passing by at the site, and the products they transported to Tell Sabi Abyad and Ashur, but also from the presence of a collection of ‘foreign’ ceramics among the finds at the dunnu. This paper offered to Frans Wiggermann discusses one of the more intriguing examples of these ‘exotic’ vessels: a large, dark grey cooking pot. Its remarkable size and shape, but especially its exceptional fabric, raise questions as to where this cooking pot was made. From where, how, and why, did it end up at the dunnu of Tell Sabi Abyad? And is it possible that this was not an ordinary cooking pot, but part of the equipment of perfume makers?