We’re making sebetu rolls as we learn about Ancient Mesopotamia. Also, look at my page Ancient Mesopotamia Fun Facts For Kids Who Love History for more hands-on history ideas.
Too, you’ll love my Free Mesopotamia Lapbook For Kids Who Love Hands-On Learning. I have a wonderful older book, Ancient Egyptians and Their Neighbors: An Activity Guide, which has been one of the best books for fun and easy hands-on history ideas for ancient civilizations.
It has 4 sections in it: Hittites, Nubians, Mesopotamians and Egyptians.
And today. Ancient Mesopotamia (Hands-on History): Cook Sebetu (seh-BAY-too) Rolls, I’m sharing a fun recipe to do while studying Ancient Mesopotamia.
But first, look at a few interesting facts about this area.
Even though Ancient Mesopotamia is a region, there were several civilizations in this area like the Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians to name three of them.
So there was a variety of food grown and cooked throughout each civilization but there were common foods to all of them.
BOOKS FOR KIDS ABOUT ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA
First, look at these books about Mesopotamia.
7 Books to Read About Ancient Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a region situated within the Tigris–Euphrates River system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia occupies modern Iraq. In the broader sense, the historical region included present-day Iraq and parts of present-day Iran, Kuwait, Syria, and Turkey.
Gilgamesh, half-god and half-man, in his loneliness and isolation becomes a cruel tyrant over the citizens of Uruk. To impress them forever he orders a great wall to be built, driving his people to exhaustion and despair so that they cry to the Sun God for help.
5,000 years ago in ancient Mesopotamia during a terrible drought, Jomar and Zefa's father must send his children away to the city of Ur because he can no longer feed them. At fourteen, Jomar is old enough to apprentice with Sidah, a master goldsmith for the temple of the moongod, but there is no place for Zefa in Sidah's household. Zefa, a talented but untrained musician, is forced to play her music and sing for alms on the streets of Ur.
Describes the enormous accomplishments of the Sumerians and Babylonians of ancient Mesopotamia in every scientific area, a heritage which affects our own everyday lives
Explores Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian cultures, discussing social structure, lifestyles, and the military in these societies.
Lugalbanda woke with a jolt. He opened his eyes and what did he see but the terrible Anzu bird beating its wings in its nest high above. . . . Did he quake? Did he quail? No. Lugalbanda the Brave sat and stared, and into his head came a brilliant idea.
Presents the history of ancient Mesopotamia, describing the different groups of people who lived there, and their government, cities, everyday life, religion, and writing.
Invites readers them to become the main character. Each book uses humorous illustrations to depict the sometimes dark and horrific side of life during important eras in history.
The book Mesopotamian Archaeology states: “Wheat and barley were grown on a large scale, and without doubt formed the staple food of the people, providing them with an ample supply of material for cakes and different kinds of bread, including milk loaves and black bread.
MESOPOTAMIA- IT TRULY IS THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION
The principal fruits which were cultivated at this period, were dates, figs, pomegranates and grapes: they were eaten cooked and uncooked, sometimes forming part of a fruit salad, at other times being made into fruit cakes.
As regards vegetables, onions, radishes, cucumbers and beans appear to have been the most favoured.”
So we decided to make a staple from their diet which is bread and tweaking the recipe some from Ancient Egyptians and Their Neighbors: An Activity Guide to make Sebetu (seh-BAY-too) Rolls.
It piqued our interest because supposedly its based on a 3,000 year old recipe. Scholars found recipes written on clay tablets.
This bread or crust was part of bird pie and a few ingredients have been changed. We don’t know what sasku flour is, so we’ll use just regular flour.
I love it when I have all the ingredients already which has to be a great standard for doing hands-on history projects. No fuss and simple are best.
HOW TO MAKE ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA SEBETU ROLLS
Look at this cast of characters that we had our house.
- 1 c. flour
- 2 t. olive oil
- 1 clove fresh garlic (we used minced)
- 1/4 t. salt
- 1/4 c milk
- 2 T water
- 1-1/2 t. baking powder
- 2 or 3 green onions (white part only)
Supplies: 1 big mixing bowl, one small bowl, cookie sheet, measuring spoons, 1 cup dry measure and a liquid measuring cup.
First, oil the cookie sheet and set aside. It doesn’t have to be much. I think we used a couple of teaspoons and wiped it on with a papertowel.
Then mix the flour and baking powder in large bowl and set aside.
In the smaller bowl stir together water and salt.
Add milk. Stir. And then add the 2 t. olive oil and stir.
Mix in the garlic and we chopped the white part of the green onion a bit more fine before we added it to the liquid mixture.
I think Tiny got some green part of the onion, but this isn’t science, so it was all good.
He kneaded the dough as fast as he could and I’m sure not too long as he is not a patient cook.
ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA SEBETU ROLLS
There’s that cute baker (okay, okay).
Then he halved the dough to form 8 balls and baked them on 400 degrees for about 15 minutes.
He cooked them a bit longer and checked like every two minutes. So about another 6 minutes or so.
I was shocked! The boys flipped out over how good the rolls were.
They said it reminded them of the biscuits at Red Lobster. They were absolutely delicious with the onion and garlic flavoring added to them.
And we were surprised to learn that the ancient recipes seemed so modern.
I think your kids will like this! Also, we love, love using Home School in the Woods as they have many hand-on and fun history projects for each time period.
Here are more activities you’ll like:
Go to my Ancient Civilization page for free lapbooks for the civilizations of Ancient Mesopotamia, and my Ancient Civilizations II page also has a free Mesopotamia book and Hands-on History Activities for Learning about Ancient Civilizations.
And here is first day in this series if you missed it:
Ancient Egypt Civilization (Hands-on History): Narmer Crown.
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