Occasions for Banquets. In ancient Mesopotamia rulers held banquets to celebrate military victories and successful hunts. During the first half of the third millennium B.C.E., banquets were held in connection with agrarian festivals, while, in the mid second millennium B.C.E., the Hittites in Anatolia celebrated a banquet in connection with their Sacred Marriage rite. In the first millennium B.C.E. the practice of holding a funeral banquet appears to have entered Mesopotamia from Egypt. Artworks usually depict banqueters sitting down, but on occasion they are shown standing. Beginning in the mid-seventh century B.C.E., reclining at a banquet became increasingly popular, spreading from Syria eastward into Mesopotamia and westward into Anatolia and the Greek world.

Early Banquets. A late fourth millennium B.C.E. seal impression on a door sealing from Choga Mish in southwest Persia...