ISRAeLITe eMBASSIeS To ASSyRIA 187 one exception [...]) seem to have been prepared about the time of the vernal equinox, i.e. at the beginning of the Mesopotamian solar year (28 March)” 42. Fales notes that the day of the event tends to fall on the first, second, eleventh, twelfth, twenty-first, or twenty-second of the month 43. More importantly, he notes that the feast “indisputably took place during a number of years in the early eighth century” 44. Fales has brought a dose of reality to our estimates of the wine consumed, and he has clearly shown that the wine lists represent a one-time event, such as a feast. This demonstration makes kinnier Wilson’s suggestion that the foreigners were labourers exceedingly improbable: it is difficult to understand why workers would be given an annual wine-ration at a feast. vI. The event described in nimrud Wine List 4 We can go further in defining the nature of this feast. As Fales and others note, many of the wine lists indicate that the distribution of wine took place in the months of Addaru or nisannu. What sort of one-time distribution took place in nisannu (or in the previous month) where both royal officials and individuals from other weaker king- doms were present? once we know that these wine lists represent an annual activity, in the spring (Addar and nissan), it seems simple to correlate the wine lists that mention foreign individuals to the event to which we know foreign individuals came to Assyria in the spring — the annual arrival of ṣērāni at Calah. As Postgate demonstrated, we know that the ṣērāni were given gifts as part of their reception in the capital, and the wine ration lists would appear to be records of the gifts given to the foreign ṣērāni at or in conjunction with a feast 45. 42 PARPoLA, “Review”, 170-171. The exception is nWL 33, whose date is re- lated to the substitute king ritual. Parpola lists the following attested dates: 1 Addar for nWL 8, 22 Addar II for nWL 3, 1 nisan for nWL 9, 11 nisan for nWL 5 and nWL 19, dates in the teens of nisan for nWL 2, nWL 6 and nWL 14, and 12 nisan for nWL 1. 43 FALeS, “A Fresh Look at the nimrud Wine Lists”, 365. This is supported by the evidence he adduced that demonstrates that the lists are dated to the following days of the month: 12, 11, 22, 12, 11, 10, 1, 1, 12, 11 (!), 22, 11, 16, 8. 44 He seems to understand the feast to have been celebrated on numerous oc- casions in the same season in many different years in the first part of the eighth century, the same phenomenon also possibly occurring later as well. FALeS, “A Fresh Look at the nimrud Wine Lists”, 370 45 The Hebrew Bible (cf. Genesis 43, 44; 2 Sam 6,19, esth 2,18) describes the giving of food to invitees in conjunction with a royal feast. Its use in a variety