Mesopotamian cuisine is the cooking tradition of the ancient region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, in what is now Iraq, Syria, and parts of Turkey and Iran, and is among the earliest documented cuisines in human history.
Its staples were the grains, produce, and livestock of the fertile river valleys: barley, wheat, dates, figs, pomegranates, and meat from sheep, goats, and cattle. Cooking relied on roasting, boiling, and clay-oven baking, seasoned with cumin, coriander, and mint, and foods were preserved by drying, pickling, and fermenting. A common dish was a one-pot stew of meat, vegetables, and grains; bread held both everyday and ritual importance.
Mesopotamian foodways fed into later Levantine, Persian, and Mediterranean cooking, though most familiar dishes associated with those cuisines today, such as hummus and baklava, developed much later and are not direct Mesopotamian inventions.