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"Pharaohs Tombs."
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Influence of the traditional food culture of Ancient Egypt on the transition of cuisine and food culture of contemporary Egypt
Because of the largely arid desert landscape of Egypt, for millennia, Egyptians have been closely connected to living alongside the narrow fertile banks of the Nile River. Annually, melting snow cascading from the mountains in the highlands of the south triggers the Nile River to flood on its journey northbound toward Egypt. As the flood water recedes, it leaves in its wake a rich layer of fertile, volcanic dark soil deposits. The Egyptians mainly rely on this annual natural event to grow various staple food crops, including emmer wheat for making bread, vegetables for cooking molokhia, fruits, and legumes for making koshary. Further, the Nile River provides a source of drinking water, fishing, and raising livestock for meat and dairy products for making halloumi and kariesh cheeses. 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. Because the ancient Egyptians meticulously kept descriptive records, there is a considerable body of archaeological evidence and hieroglyphic accounts regarding ancient Egyptian tangible food history and culture. However, ancient Egyptian food culture has not received adequate scholarly investigations as did the Pharaohs, Pyramids, and mummies. This article aims to examine the under-researched area of the influence of the traditional food culture of Ancient Egypt on the transition of the cuisine and food culture of contemporary Egypt, and how the Pharaohs employed food to achieve longevity during their life and prepare for successful admission into their afterlife. Three factors have contributed to the development and continuation of the 5000-year Egyptian food culture. First, the existence of the Nile River provides reliable, rich silted soil for growing various staple crops. Second, the annual inundation of the Nile River transports fresh layers of silt-rich fertile soil, which provides stable agriculture and supports cultivating various food crops and raising livestock. Third, as a result, of the first two factors, Egypt has been experiencing abundantly diverse staple food sources for millennia.
Journal Article
Organic chemistry of balms used in the preparation of pharaonic meat mummies
The funeral preparations for ancient Egyptian dead were extensive. Tomb walls were often elaborately painted and inscribed with scenes and objects deemed desirable for the afterlife. Votive objects, furniture, clothing, jewelry, and importantly, food including bread, cereals, fruit, jars of wine, beer, oil, meat, and poultry were included in the burial goods. An intriguing feature of the meat and poultry produced for the deceased from the highest levels of Egyptian society was that they were mummified to ensure their preservation. However, little is known about the way they were prepared, such as whether balms were used, and if they were used, how they compared with those applied to human and animal mummies? We present herein the results of lipid biomarker and stable carbon isotope investigations of tissues, bandaging, and organic balms associated with a variety of meat mummies that reveal that treatments ranged from simple desiccation and wrapping in bandages to, in the case of the tomb of Yuya and Tjuia (18th Dynasty, 1386–1349 BC), a balm associated with a beef rib mummy containing a high abundance of Pistacia resin and, thus, more sophisticated than the balms found on many contemporaneous human mummies.
Journal Article
The meaning of wine in Egyptian tombs: the three amphorae from Tutankhamun's burial chamber
Three wine jars in Tutankhamun's fabulously preserved burial chamber had been opened and placed east, west and south of the sarcophagus. By means of inscriptions, endorsed by residue analysis, the author distinguishes the contents as red wine, white wine and a high quality fortified wine, and goes on to argue for specific symbolic meanings for these choices in the context of religious change after Akhenaten.
Journal Article
The mummy's curse: historical cohort study
Abstract Objective: To examine survival of individuals exposed to the “mummy's curse” reputedly associated with the opening of the tomb of Tutankhamen in Luxor, Egypt, between February 1923 and November 1926. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Participants: 44 Westerners identified by Howard Carter as present in Egypt at the specified dates, 25 of whom were potentially exposed to the curse. Main outcome measures: Length of survival after date of potential exposure. Results: In the 25 people exposed to the curse the mean age at death was 70 years (SD 12) compared with 75 (13) in those not exposed (P=0.87 for difference). Survival after the date of exposure was 20.8 (15.2) v 28.9 (13.6) years respectively (P=0.95 for difference). Female sex was a predictor for survival (P=0.02). Conclusions: There was no significant association between exposure to the mummy's curse and survival and thus no evidence to support the existence of a mummy's curse What is already known on this topic The methods of evidence based medicine have not been used to investigate the reality of the “mummy's curse” The arguments against the curse have been as anecdotal as the contemporary newspapers that reported it What this study adds There was no association between potential exposure to the mummy's curse during the excavation of Tutankamen's tomb and death within 10 years No evidence was found for the existence of a mummy's curse
Journal Article
Creativity in Visual Arts
For this chapter, “art” refers more or less to all the visual evidence attested for Egypt, even if for many, the term “visual arts” primarily conjures up funerary art, including burial goods, mummy masks, portraits, coffins, shrouds, tomb architecture, and decoration. Identity depends on one's situation, both in life and in death, and is to a certain extent negotiable. The chapter focuses on some trends in different areas of the cross‐cultural visual legacy. The Egyptian temples of the Greco‐Roman Period were not only architecturally sophisticated, but also decorated in very complex ways according to specific principles of decoration. The Ptolemies not only adopted the presentation of Hellenistic rulers, but also became Egyptian pharaohs, appropriating pharaonic traditions and styles, as can most clearly be seen in the Egyptian temples. By the fifth century, pagan cults were largely outlawed and Christianity was in plain sight, with the great churches and monasteries dominating the landscape.
Book Chapter