Sheum has a possible connection to the ancient Near East. “It is the Old Assyrian name for wheat, which is she’um or e’um… . Even though for Nephites the name evidently did not refer to wheat, as it did at one time in ancient Mesopotamia, its attestation among the names of other cereal grains points to an origin for the term in the ancient Near East. What is not clear, of course, is whether this term came originally from the Jaredites, the Mulekites, or the Nephites” (Welch, “Weighing and Measuring,” 43).