Iris Tanza-Kamil

For context, Carchemish lies in Southern Anatolia, on the western bank of the Euphrates, which flows all the way down to Mari (where the ice was delivered). But as for the location in which the ice was harvested, namely Zirānum, the place is a hapax and yet unlocated!

Yasmaḫ-Addû, known to indulge in the little (gigantic) luxuries of life, enjoyed to cool his drinks with ice during the hot summer months. During the winter, he had the ice harvested in the northern mountain regions and then exported to him once it got hotter. To keep the ice from melting, it was stored in “ice-houses”, called šurīpum. The practice of freezing water was likely not invented at that time, as we can see from multiple letters addressing the difficulty of transporting ice without it melting, but also from this letter from Šamši-Addû to YA: “About collecting ice: is it good when porters have to bring ice from 20 or 40 miles away? Give orders to the cup bearer’s servants or to the ušmum-officials, & make them collect the ice! Let them wash it free of twigs and dung and dirt!”

Zimri-Lim, who later deposed YA as the king of Mari, established the practice of keeping ice-houses further north in the region of Terqa. We have even found an inscription on the ruins of such an ice-house!