Smells, Flavours, and Sounds: a Sensory Analysis of Feasting in Third Millennium Mesopotamian Iconography

Representations of banquet in the art of third millennium BC are largely present on sculpted plaques and cylinder seals, mainly. Banquet motif is made upon a kind a iconographic canon: next to the moment of feasting, that is the consumption of food and drink, the representations also encompass other moments, such as the music due to the presence musicians playing lyres and harps and singers. The present paper focuses on the sensorial analysis of the banquet scenes: smell, taste and hearing, beyond sight, have a fundamental role in the construction of social ties that is in fact at the centre of the function and meaning of feasting in ancient Sumerian society.