ancient diets

Guys,

Does anyone know what ancient people ate? I have read that although they were omni-vores, they only ate meat during religious feasts, after sacrificing the animal. Pretty much vegetarian during most other days. Is this accurate/ possible, given the extreme physical toil these people had to suffer without modern machines? How often were these religious feasts?

I would have guess that these recipes are not for free commoners, but this is what Jean Bott�ro, ASSYRIOLOGIST sais:

...But Bott�ro is convinced that the Mesopotamians - and not only Mesopotamia royalty - enjoyed them.

"It is my opinion," he wrote in the The Journal of the American Oriental Society, "that in any given culture, imagination and refinement, whether culinary or otherwise, are by themselves easily contagious. We might imagine, therefore, that even small households must have introduced some experimentation into their everyday eating, within the limits of their economic' capabilities.

"In other words, I do not believe that the cuisine of even the most modest of [Mesopotamian] households is necessarily reflected in the sorry mushes and doleful mastications to which we Asyriologists have consigned them so sadistically.

... In fact these tablets on wich are written these recipes, give us a good idea of how andvanced (culinary speaking, among more), was the ancient akkadian/sumerian civilization.  I use the word advanced........

One text that has come down to us is a Sumerian-Akkadian bilingual dictionary, recorded in cuneiform script on 24 stone tablets about 1900 BC. It lists terms in the two ancient Mesopotamian languages for over 800 different items of  food and drink. Included are 20 different kinds of cheese, over 100 varieties of soup and 300 types of bread - each with different ingredients, filling, shape or size.

A Babylonian Banquet

These three of the World�s oldest known recipes were recorded 3,700 years ago in Akkadian by a scribe who used reed styli to make cuneiform (wedge-shaped) impressions on the clay tablet, shown actual size, at right. In the translations below, amplifications have been added in brakets tom make the fuller meaning of the originals clear.

KID STEW
Singe head, legs and tail over flame [before putting in pot]. Meat [in addition to kid] is needed, [preferably mutton to sharpen the flavor]. Bring water to boil. Throw in fat. Squeeze onion, sam�du [a plant probably of the onion family, and] garlic [to extract juices, add to pot with] blood and soured milk. [Add] an equal amount of raw �uhutinnu [another plant probably of the onion family] and serve.

TARRU-BIRD STEW
[Besides the tarru birds, which may have been pigeon, quail or partridge,] meat from a fresh leg of mutton is needed. Boil the water, throw fat in. Dress the tarru [and place in pot]. Add coarse salt as needed. [Add] hulled cake of malt. Squeeze onions, sam�du, leek, garlic [together] and add to pot along with] milk. After [cooking and] cutting up the tarru , plunge them [to braise] in stock [from the pot]. Then place them back in the pot [in order to finish cooking]. To be brought out for carving.

BRAISED TURNIPS
Meat is not needed. Boil water. Throw fat in. [Add] onion, dorsal thorn [name of unknown plant used as seasoning], coriander, cumin and kana�� [a legume]. Squeeze leek and garlic and spread [juice] on dish. Add onion and mint.

source: http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/198802/mesopotamian.me nus.htm