Was ice a novelty before the invention of refrigeration? How was ice transported and stored BCE?

by BAN_SOL_RING

I’m interested in how ice was harvested, transported, and stored in ancient cultures. Particularly if desert biomes had a way to store ice.

Was ice expensive? Did the common man/lower society know ice existed or had ever touched it?

Thanks.

DanKensington

Underestimate not the ingenuity of people before refrigeration. Especially not the peoples of what we now call the Middle East. More can always be said if anyone would like to speak about pre-refrigeration ice mining or ice making, especially since this is an awesome subject that can always use more posts!

For the meantime, OP, grab your gloves and put the Frozen on, because we're going ice mining.

u/Bentresh looks at how they did it in the Bronze Age Near East;
u/J-Force looks at how they did it in the Medieval Near East;
and while it isn't BCE, we may as well see how long it lasted, so u/MrDowntown looks at how they did it early in the 1800s.

Bonus: Bentresh mentions them in their answer, but for completeness, here is the Encyclopedia Iranica article on the Iranian yaḵčāl.

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While it's not really about BCE, you may still enjoy this answer by /u/Valmyr5 about ice before refrigeration.