Dr. Martin Rundkvist is a Swedish archaeologist, journal editor, public speaker, chairman of the Swedish Skeptics Society, atheist, lefty liberal, bookworm, and father of two.
And here's star philologist and religion scholar Ola Wikander with a guest lesson in Akkadian.
The word of the day is nuḫatimmu. It means "a cook" in Akkadian (or sometimes "a baker"). Maybe something to interest Gordon Ramsay? And wouldn't it be great if there was an Akkadian version of the TV show MasterChef, named Rab Nuḫatimmê? Taken literally, that term means "top cook", "best cook", but it was also used in a slightly different context way back when. In 586 BC, when Jerusalem had surrendered to Babylonian invaders, the victors sacked the city under the command of a certain Nebuzaradan (in Akkadian actually Nabû-zēr-iddina, see 2 Kings 25). The man was in fact "master chef" at the court of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II. But this official's duties had clearly expanded at the time to include a few more aggressive tasks. Maybe the parallel with Gordon Ramsay isn't so far-fetched after all...
Translated by MR.
[More about akkadian, language, gordonramsay, Jerusalem; akkadiska, språk, gordonramsay, jerusalem.]
Comments
Nebuchadnezzar II: "These dumplings are terrible! They're so hard, you could use them as catapult projectiles....say, that gives me an idea..."
Posted by: Phillip IV | August 9, 2010 8:30 AM
I'm thinking that if you're worried about poisoning, your chief of kitchen staff needs to be a *very* trusted individual. Going on the medieval model, this makes him a fellow-noble with the usual military background, and potentially a blood relative. Do we know enough about the Akkadian social structure to know the status of senior servants?
Posted by: stripey_cat | August 9, 2010 8:57 AM
Akkadian? Is that where Kajan cooking originated?
Posted by: Origuy | August 9, 2010 7:16 PM
Don't know, us Akkademikks can't cook.
Posted by: Martin R | August 10, 2010 3:19 AM