A new archive of cuneiform tablets discovered in the ziggurat precinct of ancient Ur has revealed the existence of a highly specialized bureaucratic department: the Office of the Royal Ice-Houses. The tablets detail the transport of ice from the northern mountains to the southern Mesopotamian plains using insulated reed boats and elaborate storage protocols.
The archive includes clay blueprints for 'Yakhchals'—early conical structures designed to keep ice frozen during the summer months using wind-catchers and subterranean evaporative cooling. These records show that the Sumerian elite enjoyed cold beverages and chilled food as early as 2000 BCE, highlighting a level of luxury and thermodynamic engineering previously underestimated by historians.