The first known cultivation of opium poppies was in Mesopotamia, approximately 3400 BC, by Sumerians, who called the plant "hul gil", the "joy plant". Tablets found at Nippur, a Sumerian spiritual center south of Baghdad, described the collection of poppy juice in the morning and its use in production of opium. Cultivation continued in the Middle East by the Assyrians, who also collected poppy juice in the morning after scoring the pods with an iron scoop; they called the juice "aratpa-pal", possibly the root of "Papaver". Opium production continued under the Babylonians and Egyptians.