Fashions in Ancient Egypt

The author: Professor Yasser Metwally

http://yassermetwally.com

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INTRODUCTION

May 17, 2008 — Here’s a surprise to many. The high-quality Egyptian cotton that is so popular the world over was not even available ancient Egypt. It was only until the Christian period that cotton trees growing half-wild in Nubia (southern Egypt) started being used. And finally, in the 19th century, an American variety of cotton started flourishing in Egypt. So what did the ancient Egyptians wear? Linen. Most everything men, women and children wore was made from linen. In fact, the ancient Egyptians believed the Gods wore linen. Linen is made from flax-a winter crop–and there are many tomb and relief scenes showing men and women pulling the flax from the ground. The ancient people also donned wool capes on cold evenings. Silk first came to Egypt during the Ptolemaic Period; the famed Cleopatra VII wore silk.

• Simple and elegant

In today’s world, fashions come and go on a seasonal or yearly basis; in Egypt, fashion changed very little in its 3000-year history. For the most part, the people wore a draped style of dress, the garments consisting of pieces of material wrapped around the body and held in place by knots tied in the fabric and by waist belts, sashes and collars. The Egyptians were lucky that these kinds of clothes did not require much sewing-just along the sides and later on for armholes. And the men-another surprise-were supposedly more fashion conscious than the women. From reliefs and tomb drawings, it has been estimated that men had over forty different types of garments of various shapes, lengths and fullness.

Figure 1. Fashions in Ancient Egypt (Click to magnify figure)

Over the centuries there were some gradual changes in dress as clothing styles became more intricate. During the Old Kingdom (which lasted until about 2130 BC), men and women wore simple garments. Men wore a short skirt–belted at the waist–that in time became pleated or gathered. Important men often wore a shoulder cape or corselet to cover their bare torso. Women wore the sheathlike gown that has been so often depicted in ancient Egyptian art. The gown covered the body from the ankles to just underneath the breasts, and was held up by decorative shoulder straps. Sometimes we see paintings of men wearing animal skins, such as that of the leopard. This often signified high status; animal skins were also used in some religious ceremonies or festivals. The Egyptians became quite adept at tanning hides, and they used the leather for straps and various types of footwear, including sandals. Sandals were also made from papyrus or palm leaves.

During the Middle Kingdom, which prospered until around 1600 BC (the capital had moved from Memphis to Thebes), more material was used in the masculine skirt, making it longer-sometimes down to the ankles-and fuller. The men also wore elaborate and ornamental pendants which were attached to their belts. Late during this time period, a double skirt was introduced-a triangular loincloth was worn under a skirt.

Figure 2. Fashions in Ancient Egypt (Click to magnify figure)

The women continued with their simple sheer gowns until the New Kingdom-from about 1539 BC until 30 BC when the ancient civilization was finally conquered by Rome. Both men and women still wore the same type of garments but they were composed of larger pieces of material and draping was more intricate and more richly decorated. Important persons of both sexes wore robes that were draped and pleated and held in place by pins and belts, creating wide, elbow-length sleeves. At this point, the Egyptians were influenced by the fashions brought by Assyrians, Persians Greeks who successively conquered them until the final vanquishing by Rome.

• She wore white

And so did he in ancient Egypt. The process of dyeing material came very slowly to Egypt. Although garments were mostly white, there was no lack of color. Men and women wore decorative collars-tightly hued bands made of embroidered materials and beads and set around the neck and shoulders on the bare skin or on top of a white cape or gown. Bracelets, earrings, pendants, rings, ankle bracelets-all made from semi-precious stones and faience (the first ceramic material invented)-also set off the white garments in a beautiful contrast of blues, greens and browns and golds. In the New Kingdom, embroidery, influenced by Syrian culture, made its debut. A certain group of decorative motifs show up in embroidery on collars, belts and sashes–the lotus flower, papyrus bundle, birds in flight and many geometric forms. Sacred emblems, such as the scarab beetle and the asp were worn by priests and royalty. But even poor Egyptians found ways of adorning themselves.

Figure 3. Fashions in Ancient Egypt (Click to magnify figure)

Isn’t it intriguing that with all of today’s fashions, when someone wants a an entertaining costume, he or she will look to ancient Egyptian for something special to wear?

Figure 4. Fashions in Ancient Egypt (Click to magnify figure)

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References

1. Women in Ancient Egypt by Barbara Watterson (St. Martin’s Press, 1991)
2. The History of Middle Eastern and Western Dress, Britanica.com

Bread in Ancient Egypt

The author: Professor Yasser Metwally

http://yassermetwally.com

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INTRODUCTION

May 17, 2008 — Ancient Egyptians, depending on their wealth and status, could have a varied diet, but central to their nourishment was bread and beer. From very early on, both were consumed at every meal, by everyone, and no meal was considered complete without them. Bread, nutritionally, provided protein, starch and trace nutrients, and it also played much the same role as beer in the Egyptian economy as well as in cult rituals. However, some flour caused severe abrasion of the teeth particularly among those who depended upon bread as their main source of nourishment. But this affected all classes and even Amenhotep III suffered badly from such problems.

Bread was made from a variety of ingredients, though often only a specific species of wheat was thought best (Triticum aestivum), though almost any cereal was suitable. Depending on the type of flour, the structure and texture of a loaf could be very different, and just as today, all breads were not light, risen or spongy.

Thankfully, the climate of Egypt, which is very arid in many locations, is responsible for preserving a rich record of organic materials, including bread loaves. Hundreds of specimens have survived, mostly from funerary offerings that have found their way into the museums of the world. These even include fragments from Predynastic graves of the Badarian culture. Talk about stale! These loaves are over five thousand years old.

Figure 1. The Diet of the Ancient Egyptians (Click to magnify figure)

These ancient loaves, though a direct source of evidence about ancient Egyptian bread and baking, have actually not been studied much by modern scholars. Hence, though many breads and cakes are known from historical documents, their distinguishing features are in fact unknown. Some scholars have suggested that pesen-bread was a flat round loaf, not unlike that found in Egypt today. However, preserved loaves have shown that breads of the same shape were not always made from the same ingredient or the same recipe and, therefore, may not have been known by the same name. For example, extant hand-formed conical loaves were frequently made from emmer wheat (Triticum dicoccum), though one known specimen was made mostly from figs (Ficus carica). At the same time, various shapes and textures of bread could also be made from the same batch of dough.

We mostly know the process of baking from the evidence of artistic scenes in which it is depicted. For example, one of the best examples comes from a relief in a 5th Dynasty tomb at Saqqara belonging to Ti. However, there are also Old Kingdom statuettes that portray baking activities. Middle Kingdom models, notably from the tomb of Meketra, also provide some details, as well as give us a idea of a busy, robust bakery. Also, several tombs at Beni Hasan contain bread-making scenes, and at least one other is found in the New Kingdom wall paintings of Nebamun’s tomb on the West Bank of Thebes (modern Luxor).

Figure 2. The Diet of the Ancient Egyptians (Click to magnify figure)

The preparations for making bread in ancient Egypt were somewhat more difficult that in our modern times, principally because of the distinctive nature of their staple wheat, emmer, which differs in some properties from most modern wheat used to make bread. Emmer was used into the Ptolamic Period. Today, typical bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) has ears that easily separate into chaff and grain when threshed. The traditional process for processing it uses winnowing and sieving to remove the chaff from the grain.

However, emmer requires more extensive processing, which at least in families was usually performed by women. Usually, only enough grain was ground at one time to fill the needs of a day’s meals.

After threshing, it breaks into packets called spikelets, each of which is a thick envelope of chaff that tightly surround two kernels. Prior to winnowing and sieving to clean the chaff from the kernels, a process is needed to break the chaff apart without damaging the grain.

From various research and experimental evidence, we do have some idea of the procedures employed to processes the spikelets by the ancient Egyptians. We believe that whole spikelets were moistened with a small amount of water and than pounded with wooden pestles in limestone mortars. Since the water made the spikelets pliable, the chaff could be shredded without crushing the grain kernels inside. This was not a time consuming process, although the ancient Egyptian mortars were usually small and several batches of spikelets had to be processed before enough freed kernels were produced to make bread for even a family. Even after this added process, the released grain kernels and broken chaff then had to be tried, probably under the sun. Afterwards, it went through a series of winnowing steps, and sieving, The sieves made from rushes and the like were not very efficient and allowed grains of sand and little flakes of stone to remain in the flour, especially when soft mill stones were used. In fact, the last step in the process was the removal of final fragments of chaff which were picked out by hand.

Next, the the whole grain was milled into flour, usually using a flat grinding stone known as a saddle quern. From Neolithic times through the Old Kingdom, these grinding stones were placed on the floor, which made the process difficult. However, tombs scenes of the Middle Kingdom show the querns raised onto platforms, called quern emplacements. Some of these have been excavated at a few New Kingdom sites. They made life much easier, and probably made the work quicker as well. Modern experimentation with these devices has shown that no grit was required to aid the milling process, as has sometimes been suggested by scholars, and the the texture of the flour could be precisely controlled by the miller.

Figure 3. The Diet of the Ancient Egyptians (Click to magnify figure)

Baking also evolved over ancient Egypt’s long history. Excavation of a bakery dating to the Old Kingdom at Giza evidences that heavy pottery bread molds were set in rows on a bed of embers to bake the dough placed within them. By the Middle Kingdom, square hearths were used, and the pottery moulds were altered into tall, narrow, almost cylindrical cones. Then, by the New Kingdom, a new oven was introduced with a large, open-clay cylinder encased in thick mud bricks and mortar. The flat disks of dough, perhaps leavened, were slapped onto the pre heated inner oven wall. When baked, they peeled off and were caught before they could fall into the embers below.

Bread loaves are especially numerous in tombs of the New Kingdom, and are not limited as to size, shape or decorations. In fact, some loaves were formed into recognizable shapes, such as fish and human figures. Others were not as fancy, taking simple shapes such as disks and fans. The dough textures of these loaves range from very fine to mealy, mostly only indicating the people, as today, probably had preferences in the type of bread they liked to eat. Whole or coarsely cracked cooked grains were often added, creating a texture not unlike modern multigrain breads. Emmer flower was almost always used for these loaves. Barley (Hordeum vulgare) was very rarely used in these bread loaves, and the amount that does show up is in such small amounts that it may have accidentally gotten into the mix. Somtimes, the sour dough left over from the previous day might be added, or some barm from the last time beer was brewed. There were flavorings, such as coriander seeds (Coriandrum sativum), honey, butter, eggs, oil an herbs, as well as fruits such as dates (Phoenix dactylifera) which were occasionally added. Yeast might also be added to some recipes, but leavening was not always used.

Seemingly, brad flavored with more exotic ingredients were probably only infrequently available to the poorer classes of Egyptians, though more research is needed to determine what breads were available to the various social classes. Unfortunately, funerary loaves comprise most of our evidence of early breads, which might not be representative of the day-to-day variety. However, the remains of cereal-processing equipment and baking installations at settlements sites has provided some evidence for the preparation of ancient Egyptian bread, and these sites may yet yield up more typical loaves.

Figure 4. The Diet of the Ancient Egyptians (Click to magnify figure)

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References:

1. Dictionary of Ancient Egypt, The Shaw, Ian; Nicholson, Paul 1995 Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers ISBN 0-8109-3225-3

2. Life of the Ancient Egyptians Strouhal, Eugen 1992 University of Oklahoma Press ISBN 0-8061-2475-x

3. Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, The Redford, Donald B. (Editor) 2001 American University in Cairo Press, The ISBN 977 424 581 4

4. Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, The Shaw, Ian 2000 Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-815034-2

5. Valley of the Kings Weeks, Kent R. 2001 Friedman/Fairfax ISBN 1-5866-3295-7

The Diet of the Ancient Egyptians

The author: Professor Yasser Metwally

http://yassermetwally.com

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INTRODUCTION

May 17, 2008 — Doubtless, ancient Egypt’s probably eat better than many others in the ancient world. After all, KMT, a name for ancient Egypt refers to its rich, dark, fertile soil and we have no doubt that since the invention of agriculture, Egyptians, with the Nile Valley and Delta, had a distinct advantage over many others when it came to food. Of course, there were lean times, when the inundation of the Nile failed them, but most often, this was not the case. In fact, we find many statues and pictures of ancient Egyptians who are well overweight.

However, it is very easy to describe any process in ancient Egypt in too broad of terms. We also must keep in mind that ancient Egypt spans thousands of years, and during that period their diets varied to some extent, while new foods were also added to their menus.

Figure 1. The Diet of the Ancient Egyptians (Click to magnify figure)

• Bread and Cereal Food

Agriculture existed from an early date in Egypt. For the common people of Egypt, cereal foods formed the main backbone of their diet from the predynastic period onward. Even for the rich, this staple mean generally consisted of a variety of different breads, often with other ingredients mixed in.

Sometimes these ingredients were purposeful, while at other times not. Because of the crude utensils used to make bread, quartz, felspar, mica, ferro magnesium minerals and other foreign bodies, including germs were almost always present in the flour.

bread was made by mixing the dough, kneading it with both hands or sometimes with the feat in large containers. Yeast, salt, spices, milk and sometimes butter and eggs were then added, before the bread was placed in a baking form or patted into various shapes.

At first it was cooked in open fires or even on the embers. But from the Old Kingdom on, bread-moulds were used which were preheated, wiped with fat and filled with the dough. Slowly this process became more sophisticated. In the Middle Kingdom, tall, tapered bread ovens with a firebox at the bottom, a grating and domed, upper compartment which was open at the top were used.

Figure 2. The Diet of the Ancient Egyptians (Click to magnify figure)

At first, and really for even later common consumption, bread was usually cooked in the shape of a pancake. However, later bread was made in long or round rolls, and sometimes even shaped into figures, particularly for ceremonial purposes. Large, soft griddle cakes were also made, just as in Nubia today. Sometimes thick loves were made, with a hollow center that was then filled with beans, vegetables or other items. Sometimes flat bread was made with raised edges in order to hold eggs, or other fillings.

Eventually, bread was made with various other ingredients, but there was no distinction between bread and pastries. Yet bread was often sweetened with honey or dates, or flavored with sesame, aniseed or fruit.

Figure 3. The Diet of the Ancient Egyptians (Click to magnify figure)

• Vegetables

Obviously, even for the poor, other items such as vegetables, fruit and fish were consumed, all gifts of the Nile. They often ate beans, chick peas, lentils and green peas, just as modern Egyptians do today. Leeks and Egyptian lettuce was also popular. garlic were eaten, as well as thought to repel agents of diseases, and onions were popular, as well as being used for medical purposes. Though Herodotus tells us otherwise, radishes do not appear to have been consumed much.

• Fruit

Chances are we do not know all the different types of fruit consumed. The most popular fruit in ancient Egypt was probably dates, which are rich in sugar and protein. While the rich used honey as a sweetener, the poor more often employed dates. They were also dried for later consumption, and were sometimes fermented to make wine.

We know that figs were eaten, but mostly from illustrations and references. Grapes were popular when available, and were also sun-dried to make raisins. Persea Mimusops laurifolia we know from the food left in tombs, as well as pomegranates, which have been found as far back as the 12th Dynasty. We have even found a water melons in the New Kingdom tomb of Nebseni. We only know of Egyptian plums from the New Kingdom, and the peach does not show up until the Ptolemaic (Greek) period.

Figure 4. The Diet of the Ancient Egyptians (Click to magnify figure)

Olives were probably bought into Egypt with the Hyksos in the Second Intermediate Period, but walnuts and carob pods (St. John’s bread) are only known from the New Kingdom onward.

• Meat, Fish and Poultry

While it is difficult to believe that certain meats, such as fish and wild poultry did not show up fairly frequently on the tables of common people, we are told by Egyptologists that it was for the most part only the rich who regularly feasted on most meat. The poor ate geese, ducks, quails, cranes and other species, and from the New Kingdom onward raised domesticated fowl. Most edible fish from the Nile were consumed, though some fish, such as the genera Lepidotus and Phragus and a few others were forbidden because of their connection with the myth of Osiris. In some locations, even the Nile perch was worshipped, and therefore never eaten. While fish were roasted or boiled, most frequently they were salted and preserved, or dried in the sun.

Figure 5. The Diet of the Ancient Egyptians (Click to magnify figure)

Beef from cattle was frequently eaten by the rich, but appeared on the tables of common people usually only during festive occasions, when a sheep or goat might be slaughtered. We also see from tomb paintings, the preparation of wild game such as antelope, ibex, gazelles and deer.

Pork was eaten, though the animal was associated with the evil god Seth. Early on it was widely consumed in Lower Egypt, but rarely in Upper Egypt. Yet we know that pigs were later bred and pork widely eaten throughout Egypt.

Figure 6. The Diet of the Ancient Egyptians (Click to magnify figure)

• Dairy Products

While milk, cheese and butter are not well attested to, at least in text, we certainly believe that the early Egyptians were familiar with all of these dairy products. We do find a number of scenes showing men carrying what appears to be pots of milk or cream, and in one Theban tomb from the 19th dynasty, we find a seated woman pulling white cones of what is probably butter or cheese out of a large vessel.

Figure 7. The Diet of the Ancient Egyptians (Click to magnify figure)

• Fats and Oil

There were also a number of different oils and fat used in the preparation of food. We know of beef, goat and other fats, and the Egyptian language had 21 different names for vegetable oils obtained from sesame, caster-oil plants, flax seed, radish seed, horseradish, safflower and colocynth. Horseradish oil was particularly popular. Oil and fat was mostly used for frying meat and vegetables, though food was also cooked in milk or butter.

• Seasonings and Sweeteners

Sea salt, because of its connection to the evil Seth, was not consumed but salt from the Siwa Oasis was available. Pepper, however, only appears from the Greek period, but other spices were also used, including aniseed, cinnamon, coriander, cumin, dill, fennel, fenugreek, marjoram, mustard and thyme.

Sugar itself does not appear in the Egyptian diet until late in history, though honey was used by the rich for a sweetener, but was probably too expensive for the poor. Common people used various fruits as sweeteners, though the most popular seems to have been dates.

Without doubt, because of Egypt’s rich soil and lush vegetation, the rich of Egypt probably always ate well, even during times of draught. In the worst of times, common people probably suffered to some extent, but mostly they were probably fed well, though not as lavishly as the rich. Banquets were frequent, as were various festivals and other celebrations, and at these times, it is likely that everyone enjoyed the bounty of the Black Land. In fact, it is likely that their superior nutrition had much to do with their success in the ancient world.

Figure 8. The Diet of the Ancient Egyptians (Click to magnify figure)

Common bakeries were not known until the New Kingdom, but larger kitchens were manned for work gangs, the military as well as the royal household and temple personnel.

Common meals were often served with beer, or for the very rich, wine. Beer was fermented mostly from wheat, though occasionally stale bread was utilized.

Notation: While one may discover “ancient Egyptian recipes” on the internet, text for recipes on cooking food are notoriously absent from the archaeological record.

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References

1. Atlas of Ancient Egypt Baines, John; Malek, Jaromir 1980 Les Livres De France None Stated

2. Life of the Ancient Egyptians Strouhal, Eugen 1992 University of Oklahoma Press ISBN 0-8061-2475-x

3. Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, The Shaw, Ian 2000 Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-815034-2