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This presentation examines the history of duckweeds in Chinese, Christian, Greek, Hebrew, Hindu, Japanese, Maya, Muslim, and Roman cultures and details the usage of these diminutive freshwater plants from ancient times through the Middle Ages. We find that duckweeds were widely distributed geographically already in antiquity and were integrated in classical cultures in the Americas, Europe, the Near East, and the Far East 2000 years ago. In ancient medicinal sources, duckweeds are encountered in procedures, concoctions, and incantations involving the reduction of high fever. In this regard, we discuss a potential case of ethnobotanical convergence between the Chinese Han and Classical Maya cultures. Duckweeds played a part in several ancient rituals. In one, the unsuitability of its roots to serve as a wick for Sabbath oil lamps. In another reference to its early use as human food during penitence. In a third, a prominent ingredient in a medicinal incantation, and in a fourth, as a crucial element in ritual body purifications. Unexpectedly, it emerged that in several ancient cultures, the floating duckweed plant featured prominently in the vernacular and religious poetry of the day.

Claudius Rich's work and his collection of objects, a collection that ended up in the British Museum, came to play a major role for the pioneers who initiated Assyria's archaeological exploration. Jules Mohl managed to persuade the authorities to create the position of a French consul in Mosul, and a young man called Paul Émile Botta was appointed in 1841. Part of his task was to start excavations at Nineveh, in particular on the huge mound known as Kuyunjik, and Mohl had secured funds specifically for this purpose. Austen Henry Layard first turned his attention to Kuyunjik, where, having better luck than Botta, he had made some significant discoveries during his earlier expedition; most importantly, he had found there a vast palace built by Sennacherib around 700 BCE. One of Layard's most important achievements at Kuyunjik was the discovery of a large room filled with mostly fragmentary clay tablets covered with cuneiform writing.