The cuisine of ancient Egypt, spanning over three thousand years, maintained consistent traits well into Greco-Roman times. This article explores the diet of the ancient Egyptians, drawing upon artistic, textual, and archaeological sources to reconstruct their dietary patterns, considering social status, economic conditions, and religious beliefs.
Sources of Information on Ancient Egyptian Diet
Information about the ancient Egyptians' diet is primarily gleaned from artistic and textual sources. However, precise identification of consumed food types faces challenges, including translation issues. Calcified tissues, such as bones and teeth, serve as biological archives, preserving indicators of diet and environmental conditions.
Staple Foods: Bread and Beer
From the Neolithic era onward, cereal foods formed the base of the daily diet for the masses. Bread and beer were staples, accompanied by vegetables, fruit, milk, dairy products, and fish. Various species of fattened poultry or wild birds were also consumed.
Bread: A Daily Necessity
Bread was a primary component of the Egyptian diet, made from emmer wheat or barley. Egyptian bread was made almost exclusively from emmer wheat, which was more difficult to turn into flour than most other varieties of wheat. The chaff does not come off through threshing, but comes in spikelets that needed to be removed by moistening and pounding with a pestle to avoid crushing the grains inside. The baking techniques varied over time. In the Old Kingdom, heavy pottery molds were filled with dough and then set in the embers to bake. During the Middle Kingdom tall cones were used on square hearths. Dough was then slapped on the heated inner wall and peeled off when done, similar to how a tandoor oven is used for flatbreads. Tombs from the New Kingdom show images of bread in many different shapes and sizes. Loaves shaped like human figures, fish, various animals and fans, all of varying dough texture. Other than emmer, barley was grown to make bread and also used for making beer, and so were lily seeds and roots, and tiger nut. The grit from the quern stones used to grind the flour mixed in with bread was a major source of tooth decay due to the wear it produced on the enamel.
Beer: More Than Just a Drink
Beer was a primary source of nutrition, consumed daily by everyone. Beer was such an important part of the Egyptian diet that it was even used as currency. Like most modern African beers, but unlike European beer, it was very cloudy with plenty of solids and highly nutritious, quite reminiscent of gruel. It was an important source of protein, minerals and vitamins and was so valuable that beer jars were often used as a measurement of value and were used in medicine. Globular-based vessels with a narrow neck that were used to store fermented beer from pre-dynastic times have been found at Hierakonpolis and Abydos with emmer wheat residue that shows signs of gentle heating from below. Microscopy of beer residue points to a different method of brewing where bread was not used as an ingredient. One batch of grain was sprouted, which produced enzymes. The next batch was cooked in water, dispersing the starch and then the two batches were mixed. The enzymes began to consume the starch to produce sugar. The resulting mixture was then sieved to remove chaff, and yeast (and probably lactic acid) was then added to begin a fermentation process that produced alcohol. This method of brewing is still used in parts of non-industrialized Africa.
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Vegetables and Fruits
Vegetables were eaten alongside bread and beer, with green scallions and garlic being the most common, also had medical uses. There was also lettuce, celery (eaten raw or used to flavor stews), certain types of cucumber and, perhaps, some types of Old World gourds and even melons. By Greco-Roman times there were turnips, but it is not certain if they were available before that period. Tiger nut (Cyperus esculentus) was used to make a dessert made from the dried and ground tubers mixed with honey. Lily and similar flowering aquatic plants could be eaten raw or turned into flour, and both root and stem were edible. A number of pulses and legumes such as peas, beans, lentils and chickpeas were vital sources of protein. The most common fruit were dates and there were also figs, grapes (and raisins), dom palm nuts (eaten raw or steeped to make juice), certain species of Mimusops, and nabk berries (jujube or other members of the genus Ziziphus). Figs were so common because they were high in sugar and protein. The dates would either be dried/dehydrated or eaten fresh. Dates were sometimes even used to ferment wine and the poor would use them as sweeteners. Unlike vegetables, which were grown year-round, fruit was more seasonal.
Meat and Protein Sources
Meat came from domesticated animals, game, and poultry. This possibly included partridge, quail, pigeon, ducks, and geese. The chicken most likely arrived around the 5th to 4th century BC, though no chicken bones have actually been found dating from before the Greco-Roman period. 5th-century BC Greek historian Herodotus claimed that the Egyptians abstained from consuming female cows as they were sacred by association with Isis. They sacrificed male oxen that were inspected to be clean and free of disease and ate the remainder after it was ritually burned. Ill or diseased male oxen that were not worthy of sacrifice and had died were buried ritually, and then dug up after the bones were clean and placed in a temple. Mutton and pork were more common, despite Herodotus' affirmations that swine were held by the Egyptians to be unclean and avoided. Poultry, both wild and domestic, and fish were available to all but the most destitute. The alternative protein sources would rather have been legumes, eggs, cheese and the amino acids available in the tandem staples of bread and beer. Mice and hedgehogs were also eaten; a common way to cook hedgehog was to encase it in clay and bake it.
Social Status and Diet
The food that Ancient Egyptians ate often depended on their social status. The Ancient Egyptian society main food was bread and beer, often accompanied by fruits, vegetables, and fish, eaten by the poor, while meat and poultry were eaten by the rich.
Food Preparation and Preservation
Food could be prepared by stewing, baking, boiling, grilling, frying, or roasting. Spices and herbs were added for flavor, though the former were expensive imports and therefore confined to the tables of the wealthy. Foods such as meats were mostly preserved by salting, and dates and raisins could be dried for long-term storage.
Dietary Analysis of Ancient Egyptians from Qubbet el Hawa
A study involving the elemental analysis of archeological mandibles excavated from Qubbet el Hawa Cemetery, Aswan, aimed to reconstruct the dietary patterns of the middle class of the Aswan population across three successive eras: the First Intermediate Period (FIP), the Middle Kingdom (MK), and the Second Intermediate Period (SIP).
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Methodology
Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), a quasi-nondestructive technique, was employed for elemental analysis of the mandibular bones. The bone Sr/Ca and Ba/Ca ratios were analyzed, with Sr/Ca ratios considered to represent ante-mortem values.
Findings and Interpretations
The study revealed significant differences in Sr/Ca ratios across the three periods, reflecting changes in dietary habits influenced by climatic, social, economic, and political conditions:
- First Intermediate Period (FIP): The significantly low FIP Sr/Ca compared to both the MK and the SIP was attributed to the consumption of unusual sorts of food and imported cereals during years of famine. The FIP was a period accompanied by the rise of nomarchs authority and the dissolution of the central government: it was the period of feudalism. According to Welc and Marks, at the end of the Old Kingdom, failure of the rains over the Ethiopian Highlands led into the failure of Nile floods. According to Bell, this situation that extended for decades during the FIP was the âcrisis that shattered a weakened central government utterly unable to cope with the problem, and decimated the Egyptian people.â As explained by Erman, there is an indication in the text named âAdmonitions of an Egyptian Sageâ that famine pushed the people to eat which they used to feed to the domesticated birds and mammals. Then, the introduction of âunusualâ sorts of foods or plants in the diet of Elephantine nobles followers and descendants during years of famine is suggested by this study. In addition, as indicated by Vandier one of the adopted strategies against famine in ancient Egypt was the loans of cereals between nomes, for example, Ankhtifi, the nomarch of âEdfuâ and âHierakonpolisâ during the early FIP supported the neighboring cities, including Elephantine, during years of famine, as he described in his tomb.
- Middle Kingdom (MK): The MK Sr/Ca was considered to represent the amelioration of climatic, social, economic, and political conditions in this era of state socialism. During the MK, the whole situation had been changed: Egypt was reunified and feudalism disappeared. The social revolution during the FIP led to radical changes in moral values that led in turn to equal opportunities availability. Thus, the rise of a new class of officials that were proud to be self-made was allowed, and the flourishment of the ancient Egyptian middle class that was âsafeguarded from famineâ took place. The current study suggested that considering the amelioration of conditions, especially for the middle class to which the population under investigation is belonging, it is expected that dietary habits of Elephantine nobles followers and descendants had been differed from that of the FIP.
- Second Intermediate Period (SIP): The SIP Sr/Ca, nearly the same as that of the MK, was considered a reflection of the continuity of individualism respect and state socialism, and an indication of agriculture conditions amelioration under the reign of the 17th Dynasty in Upper Egypt. The Sr/Ca ratio of the group of the SIP is nearly equal to that of the MK. According to Ryholt famines struck Egypt during the reign of the two competing Dynasties, the 13th and the 14th ones, as well as during the reign of the 16th Dynasty that governed the south of Upper Egypt. Although the anarchy swept all over the country during the SIP, the dissolution of the central government did not appear as the feudalism disappeared. According to Abu-Taleb, by the disappearance of feudalism during the MK and the SIP, the individualism associated with state socialism flourished. That means that although the SIP was a period of weakness, general conditions were different from that of the FIP which is reflected in a Sr/Ca ratio that is nearly similar to that of the MK: despite the anarchy and famines, the calcium sources of the population under investigation remained the same during the MK and the SIP which may reflect an indication that food intake during the SIP in Elephantine was not hardly affected to the same extent of the FIP, taking in mind that as indicated by Vandier few texts concerning famine during the SIP are available. One of these texts reflects the amelioration of political and economical conditions at the end of the SIP during the reign of the 17th Dynasty in Upper Egypt to the extent that the legitimate authority in the South was ready to struggle the Asiatics that ruled Lower Egypt (The Hyksos). In Carnarvon Tablet, the pharaoh Kamose recorded his discussion with the counselors about the situation in Egypt where they said âWe are tranquil in our part of Egypt. Elephantine is strong, and the middle part (of the land) is with us as far as Cusae. Men till for us the finest of their lands. Our cattle pasture in the Papyrus marshes. Corn is sent for our swine.
Factors Affecting Bone Composition
Several factors can influence bone strontium and barium levels, including ethanol consumption and cooking methods. Ethanol consumption causes a decrease in bone strontium and barium, while a low-protein diet accompanied by ethanol consumption increases bone strontium and decreases barium.
Diagenesis Considerations
The study addressed the potential for diagenesis, the alteration of bone composition after burial. The soil pH at Qubbet el Hawa was found to be nearly neutral, indicating good bone preservation. The significant correlation between Sr/Ca and Ba/Ca ratios further suggests that these ratios reflect biological values rather than diagenetic alterations.
Food and the Afterlife
Food played a significant role in religious offerings and rituals. Ancient Egyptians devoted a sizable portion of Pharaonic history to food, both as nourishment and for the preparation for the mythical religious experience on the journey into eternal life. Food played an essential role in performing religious rites, mummification, coronation and wedding banquets, burial ceremonies, and particularly in preparation for entering eternal life in the afterlife.
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Modern Relevance
Ancient Egyptian food was simpler and largely plant-based compared to modern diets. Bread, made from emmer wheat or barley, and beer were the staple foods, while fruits, vegetables, legumes, and fish were common. Meat, though eaten, was less frequent for commoners and reserved for special occasions. Todayâs food includes a wider variety of ingredients, modern farming methods, and technological preservation methods that allow for the availability of diverse and processed foods.