Representation of a lion hunt on a chariot. Engraving after a 9th century bas-relief adorning the Assyrian palace of Nimroud • ISTOCK A passage from the Enouma Elish , the Babylonian creation epic, explains how Anu, the god of Heaven, created the four winds and offered them to Marduk, saying to him, "My son, enjoy yourself!" If the gods of Mesopotamia found time for fun and play, so did the men and women on earth, eager to escape the routine and weariness of daily work. Take the example of a family made up of a couple and a few children of different ages, living in Nineveh, the Assyrian capital of the 8th century. century BC. A day like any other begins with the sound of children's toys. The mother tries to calm the crying of her baby with a rattle, a ball of clay at the end of a handle and filled with small pebbles. If the god Marduk played with the four winds offered by his father, the children also played, but with miniature objects in clay or wood, such as weapons (slingshots, bows and arrows, boomerangs, etc.), chariots or boats, household objects such as beds, tables and crockery, without forgetting dolls, spinning tops, skipping ropes, hoops, balls... The first board games Young people and adults often played dice. This game comes from an ancient divinatory and magical practice of throwing animal bones or astragalus to see which way they fell. During the III th millennium BC. J.-C., these objects evolve and become dice. While continuing to be used for omens, they are beginning to be widely used in a playful context. They are made with different materials (clay, stone, wood, ivory or bone) and have various shapes (disc, cube, tetrahedron, triangle…), depending on the game and its rules. If parents can keep their children busy, they can spend some time playing a very popular board game. The latter is played with a wooden board divided into squares, pawns and dice. There are different games depending on the number of squares or holes on the board, such as the snake game (known in Egypt as mehen ), 20 squares (known today as the "game of Ur"), 30 squares (known in Egypt as senet ) or that of the 58 holes. In Mesopotamia, the most popular game is the 20 squares game, which has been documented since the First Dynasty of Ur (2600-2400 BC). Outdoor recreation offers an easy way to amuse oneself:wrestling is one of the favorite sports in Mesopotamia. Although we keep images of couples playing these games, we do not know how a game was played. Only a fragmentary cuneiform tablet from the Seleucid period (177 BC), housed in the British Museum in London, explains how the game works:it consists of a race in which two players each have five pawns. The goal is to move forward on the board by rolling the dice, while the opponent tries to block progress. The tablet also specifies the names and numbers of the pawns, and indicates that the squares adorned with a rosette brought good luck. However, the rules remain unknown, so we don't know how to move the pawns. This game may have resembled backgammon, currently very popular in the Near East and undoubtedly a direct descendant of Mesopotamian board games. Also read:We found François I's tennis court The exterior also offers many opportunities for recreation, although we do not have archaeological or textual evidence of most of them. While walking through the city, our family comes across a circle of people who catch their eye. In the middle, acrobats demonstrate their agility, while dancers move to the sound of lyres, harps, drums and flutes. This show resembles one that could take place during a religious rite or even a funeral, only the context and the type of music being different. Continuing their walk, our family peers through an open door onto the patio of a house, where two men are fighting and clinging to each other in an attempt to knock the opponent to the ground. Wrestling, whether boxing or freestyle wrestling, was one of the most popular sports in Mesopotamia, as evidenced by clay plaques and bronze statuettes. Royal Ostrich Hunt Our protagonists continue their march to the gates of Nineveh, located below the palace. From there, they can observe the entertainments, more sophisticated and more expensive than their own, indulged in by the royal family. Many of them take place in a privileged setting, that of the royal gardens, an authentic paradise on earth intended for royal pleasure, populated by exotic trees, plants and animals brought back by the kings during their distant expeditions. Teglath-Phalasar I st wrote:“I took the cedars, the boxwood and the oaks of Kanesh [Kültepe, in Turkey], of the country which I conquered; none of my predecessors had ever planted these trees:I planted them in the gardens of my country. I took the unknown fruits from the gardens that did not exist in my country and planted them in all the gardens of Assyria. And Sennacherib:“I created a swamp where I planted sugar cane and settled there herons, wild pigs and buffaloes. The canes grow well, and birds of the sky and herons come from afar to nest here:wild pigs and buffaloes also breed here. » Also read:Semiramis, a legendary Assyrian queen Past the city gate, our family heads for the Tigre, where ducks, deer and other animals abound. Here, the father and his two oldest sons devote a few hours to one of the favorite pastimes of the Mesopotamians:hunting. In Mesopotamian culture, hunting sometimes takes on a magico-symbolic character and is associated with royalty, especially lion hunting. In any case, a large part of the population must have practiced it as a hobby. The texts speak of hunting parties in the open country in pursuit of all kinds of animals, as King Ashurnasirpal II narrates:"On this occasion I killed 50 wild bulls from beyond the Euphrates and I caught eight. I also killed 20 ostriches and caught 20." Even though the texts and the bas-reliefs mention fishing little, it is very likely that it was also a good pastime. In Mesopotamian culture, hunting has a magico-symbolic character and is associated with royalty, especially lion hunting. As the men hunt, the mother, daughter, and youngest boys return home. Tired of so many emotions, they have the right to enjoy one more last distraction before sleeping:the tale of a myth or an epic about gods and heroes, or the epic adventures of distant kings told by their mother. She herself heard them in her youth, during evenings spent around a fire listening to singers and storytellers tell these stories to the audience, so that, for a moment, the public forgets their daily difficulties and spends a moment of tranquility on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates. Find out more Dictionary of Mesopotamian Civilization, F. Joannès (ed.), Robert Laffont, 2001. King's feast at the palace A stele discovered in the palace of Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 BC) in Nimrud gives an account of a magnificent banquet given by the king to celebrate the renovation of the new capital of the Assyrian Empire. Those who were lucky enough to participate in this event were able to enjoy the entertainment provided by the king and the exquisite dishes served:thousands of animals were sacrificed for the occasion, as well as thousands of fish accompanied by bread, eggs, jugs of beer, skins of wine and thousands of baskets of vegetables, oil, fruit, olives, etc. Ashurnasirpal states:“I entertained them for 10 days […], altogether 69,574 guests; I fed them and gave them washing and anointing. I honored them and sent them home in peace and joy! »
