Ancient Egyptian beverages: Beer, wine, milk, water.
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DrinkBeerThe mouth of a perfectly contented man is filled with beer.Beer, henqet (Hnq.t) [8], was the preferred drink of humans and gods, of rich and poor, of grown-ups and children. In the Instructions of Ani the mother sent you to school when you were ready to be taught writing, and she waited for you daily at home with bread and beer.Bread and beer were the basic foodstuffs, and while most people had some difficulty making ends meet, there was—among the better-off at least—the danger of overindulging, and educators were aware of it. In the Instructions of Kheti the student is warned: When you have eaten three loaves of bread and swallowed two jugs of beer, and the body has not yet had enough, fight against it. Beer, together with bread, oil and vegetables, was an important part of the wages workers received from their employers. The standard daily ration during pharaonic times was two jars containing somewhat more than two litres each. It was a healthier drink than water drawn from the river or some canal, which was often polluted. The Egyptians liked their beer cool as can be learned from a complaint against some robbers who had stolen some food and drink: They drew a bottle of beer which was [cooling] in water, while I was staying in my father's room. Beer productionAccording to Strabo, a geographer living in the first century CE, only the Egyptians brewed beer from barley. Unfortunately his remarks are very general and do not give us any pointers as to the methods used:Barley beer is a preparation peculiar to the Egyptians. It is common among many tribes, but the mode of preparing it differs in each.The ancient Egyptian method of producing it was probably similar to the one still in use in the Sudan today: Wheat, barley or millet [12] was coarsely ground. One quarter of the grain was soaked and left in the sun for a while, the rest was formed into loaves of bread and lightly baked in order  not to destroy the enzymes. The loaves were crumbled and mixed with the soaked grain, which had fermented. Then water and some beer were added and the mixture was left to ferment. The fermentation complete, the liquid was strained. As a flavouring agent they may have used dates instead of the medieval gruit herbs or modern hops, but the Newcastle Brown Ale company, after running experiments, concluded that what is translated as "date" is really a word for any sweet and that there was no residue of what we call "date" in their samples. They also concluded there was no need to prepare bread before brewing because sprouted barley or wheat grains work just as well. 
This process has been depicted since 2500 BCE, when the loaves were baked in little moulds, as ovens came into use only after 2000 BCE. Eight brands of beer were known, but the use of barley became common in Hellenistic times. The bitter Nubian beer, brewed in similar fashion, couldn't be kept for very long. Egyptian beer, with pasteurizing unknown, often turned bad in the hot climate, and dead pharaohs were promised bread which doesn't crumble and beer which doesn't turn sour.
Recently, some of these traditional views have been challenged by new microscopic evidence. In 1996 Delwen Samuel from the University of Cambridge found that the Egyptians seem to have used barley to make malt and a type of wheat, emmer, instead of hops. They heated the mixture then added yeast and uncooked malt to the cooked malt. After adding the second batch of malt the mixture was allowed to ferment. No traces of flavourings were found. Large scale beer production seems to have been a royal monopoly. Temples had their own breweries, while brewing in towns and villages was farmed out. One of the earliest breweries found operated at Hierakonpolis during the middle of the 4th millennium BCE and produced possibly more than 1000 litres of beer per day. |
Water
Man fetching water from a canal. Below is his three room home. Two vessels are standing in the enclosed courtyard. ... who remove the pestilence of the streams so that you may drink water from them. 
The scribe Ani and his wife drinking river water; vignette from the Book of Ani Drinking hallowed water was necessary for the continued existence of the deceased:May they let me eat of the fields and drink from the pools within the Field of Offerings.Hormini, nomarch of Hierakonpolis, described the boons he expected to receive in the life to come: ... all the good and pure things on which a god lives, which the heavens provide, which the earth brings forth, which the Nile carries from his source, breathing the sweet air of the north wind, drinking water from the banks of the river...Slow flowing canals and stagnant pools were even more likely than the Nile to harbour dangers: the snail which is host to the bilharzia blood fluke grows best in such an environment. Infested water can be rendered harmless by letting it stand in water jugs for two days, and, of course, boiling kills all pathogens. Just how widespread such practices were, is not known. 
In many places, both in the floodplain and in mountain valleys, wells were dug, from which water could be drawn. At Pi Ramses water was raised from the public wells by means of shadoofs and collected in stone troughs, where the water-bearers could fill their containers. Even when and where water was abundant, it was used sparingly, because of the amount of work involved in raising and transporting it.
In Wadi Hammamat the quality of the well water supplied to travellers and miners was often low, and distances between wells and villages considerable. In most mountainous regions where rain was extremely rare and ran off in flash floods without being absorbed into the ground, water had to be transported on donkey back from the river valley. At Deir el Medine it was then stored in large cisterns; and one may suppose that the water rations were minimal. |
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Milking a cow, the calf is tethered to the cows front leg |
MilkThe Egyptians kept cattle, goats and sheep. Their milk was kept in egg-shaped earthen jars, plugged with grass as protection against insect and was drunk shortly after milking. It is often assumed that - because of the hot climate in which milk spoils in a few hours - milk not destined for immediate consumption was processed into something similar to quark or yoghurt-like labaneh. ... at the proper time he should bring them she-goats, and when he had satisfied them with milk he should do for them whatever else was needed.Milk was considered a delicacy by many. Senefer, a mayor of Thebes during the New Kingdom, wrote to the peasant Baki ... Order the herdsmen to get milk ready in jars before my arrival. ...The gods and the dead who joined them did not spurn milk either. According to Diodorus (1.22) there were 365 tables around the tomb of Osiris on the island of Bigge in Nubia, where daily libations of milk were placed. ... That they may give a mortuary offering, giving oil, incense, libation, wine, milk, oxen and geese to the spirit of Osiris Pediupwawt, deceased, son of Pekhi, deceased born of ... deceased.Thutmose III endowed the temple at Thebes with riches unheard of previously. Among them were 3 loan-cows of the cattle of Zahi [3]; 1 loan-cow of the cattle of Kush [4]; total 4 loan-cows; in order to draw milk thereof into jars of electrum each day, and to cause (it) to be offered [to] my father [Amun].The Egyptian names for milk products, such as cream and cheeses, have only been tentatively translated. Not much is known about the way they produced butter, but it seems it was clarified, resembling oil. |
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Wine... May he (Osiris) give water, a cool breeze and wine to the spirit of the inundation Thutmose...Wine was known to the Egyptians before 3000 BCE, and the Egyptian word for it, jrp (irep) [8], predates any known word for vine, which suggests, that wine may have been imported before it was produced locally [1]. A third dynasty official received presents from Pharaoh which included plantations: Very plentiful trees and vines were set out, a great quantity of wine was made therein. A vineyard was made for him: 2000 stat of land within the wall; trees were set out ......Both red and white wines were known by the 18th dynasty at least.[10] Wine became an important consumer good. In Ramesside times, the official responsible for furnishing commodities, came to Piramesse with three ships and carried back 1500 sealed [13] wine jars, 50 jars of a beverage called SdH (shedeh) [8], which is often mentioned in conjunction with wine [9], 50 jars of p'oor, baskets of grapes, pomegranates and more. It has been suggested that one of these beverages was a kind of liqueur made from pomegranate wine, but there is no evidence that the principle of distillation was known to the ancient Egyptians. A number of Delta vintages are mentioned in the records: the meh from north of Pakus, the wines of the nome of Pelusium and others. Some were shipped in special jars protected by woven cushioning. According to Pliny one Egyptian wine caused abortions. A number of Roman writers were familiar with these wines and their qualities and described them:
Wine consumptionOn festive occasions, such as the yearly Hathor Celebrations at Bubastis, Hathor being the goddess of love, joy and drunkenness, wine was drunk by everyone:... when they come to Bubastis they hold festival celebrating great sacrifices, and more wine of grapes is consumed upon that festival than during the whole of the rest of the year.Many temples had vineyards to supply the wine necessary for the rituals and for the every day use of the priesthood. Herodotus wrote about them: They enjoy also good things not a few, for they do not consume or spend anything of their own substance, but there is sacred bread baked for them and they have each great quantity of flesh of oxen and geese coming in to them each day, and also wine of grapes is given to them; but it is not permitted to them to taste of fish For much of ancient Egypt's history wine was mostly consumed at the court of the pharaohs, where an official was appointed as winetaster, and by the rich and powerful. Their children learned from their elders, and scribes complained of their pupils' habit to get drunk on wine. It was drunk from shallow bowls or vessels with a short stem. Sometimes a small amount of sea water was added to enhance the flavour. In the first millennium BCE its use spread to the less affluent These [Calasirians and Hermotybians] had besides their yokes of land an allowance given them for each day of five pounds weight of bread to each man, and two pounds of beef, and four half-pints of wine. This was the allowance given to those who were serving as the king's body-guard for the time being.By Roman times consumption of wine was such that Athenaeus in his Deipnosophitsts I, 34B, described the Egyptians, or at least the nobility, as winebibbers. |
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Picking grapes Tomb of Nakht British Museum Courtesy Jon Bodsworth 
Treading grapes Tomb of Nakht British Museum Courtesy Jon Bodsworth |
Wine productionThe main centres of wine production were in the Delta and the Fayum. During the Late Period at least, wine was also produced in the Western Desert oasis of Bahariya and exported to the main population centres along the Nile. The grapes were handpicked and carried in baskets to a low and wide vat probably made of stone. Above the vat there there were either ropes or a bar which the vintners held on to while treading the grapes. The grape juice drained through a hole.
Wine press The fermentation [5] probably didn't occur in the vat but rather in open jars. The fermentation process over the jars were sealed with a plug made of vine leaves and a mixture of straw and clay. If the jars were plugged before the end of the fermentation, a small opening was made which was sealed later. The jars were marked with the date, the name of the vineyard and of the "Chief Gardener" responsible for the wine [15]. They monitored the maturing of the wine. One of their tools of the trade, the syphon for tasting the wine without completely removing the plug, came into use around 1500 BCE under the influence of the Syrian customs. The jars were not covered with an exterior coating, the sealing with resin was adopted under Greek influence. Wooden barrels (a Celtic invention) were unknown in ancient times in the Mediterranean region and earthen jars were used for ageing the wine. In order to prevent it from going bad, it was boiled or poured into new jars, as marks on broken jars seem to indicate: fine wine from the eighth time (of decanting, possibly), wine from the third time or light wine which hasn't fermented yet. They knew of course that wine, once opened, stops improving and turns into vinegar after a while, but the maxim in the Instruction of Ankhsheshonq: "Wine matures as long as one does not open it" can be interpreted in more than one way. Other beveragesIn the Flower Song the lover describes the effect his love's voice has on himTo hear your voice is pomegranate wine to me: I draw life from hearing it.Just as householders today brew alcoholic beverages from anything containing sugar or starch (to the distress of visiting friends who have to drink them), so did the ancient Egyptians. The fruit of the carob tree yielded nedjem. The pekha fruit, often used to fatten animals, was made into a drink of the same name [16]. Other beverages some of them made with unidentified ingredients were w'as, djeseret, and shepenet (Spn.t) which may have been brewed with poppy seeds (Spnn) [7]. The fruit was left to ferment, the juice squeezed out and strained through a sieve. Dates were steeped in water and pressed. The earliest mention of such fermented date wine was written down during the second dynasty. One doesn't know how palm wine was produced in ancient times. It is thought that it was obtained by making incisions in the stems of date palms, collecting the sap and letting it ferment, similarly to how it is still being done today. Apart from being drunk, palm wine was also used during mummification: ... take out the whole contents of the belly, and when they have cleared out the cavity and cleansed it with palm-wine they cleanse it again with spices pounded up. |
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Picture sources: [ ] Brewery: Vom Ackerbau zum Zahnrad, Rowohlt Verlag [ ] Vessels: M.Audrain, The Glory of Egypt [ ] Well: Borchardt, Ludwig; Ricke, Herbert Die Wohnhäuser in Tell El-Amarna Bibliography: Ian Spencer Hornsey, A History of Beer and Brewing, Royal Society of Chemistry 2003, ISBN 0854046305 G. Maspero, Etudes de mythologie et d'archéologie égyptiennes, vol. 3, 1898 K. Sethe, Urkunden der 18. Dynastie, Band I R. O. Faulkner, Pyramid Texts Thomas George Allen, Egyptian Stelae in Field Museum of Natural History, 1936 James Henry Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, Chicago 1906 Herodotus, Histories II C.R.Lepsius, Denkmäler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien; 1897 Maria Rosa Guasch-Jané et al.: "The origin of the ancient Egyptian drink Shedeh revealed using LC/MS/MS", in Journal of Archaeological Science 33 (2006) J. Cerny, Hieratic Inscriptions from the Tomb of Tutankhamun, University Press, Oxford 1965 Duccio Cavalieri, Patrick E. McGovern, Daniel L. Hartl, Robert Mortimer, Mario Polsinelli; "Evidence for S. cerevisiae Fermentation in Ancient Wine" in Journal of Molecular Evolution, Springer 2003 Strabo, Geography Adolf Erman, The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians; poems, narratives, and manuals of instruction, from the third and second millennia B. C., London, Methuen & Co. ltd., 1927 Footnotes: [1] In a pre-dynastic royal tomb at Abydos wine jars were found which had been made in Canaan [2]. [3] Zahi: Djahi, region in today's Israel. During the New Kingdom Zebu cattle were imported into Egypt from Syria. [4] Kush: Today's Sudan [5] D. Cavalieri et al. have found evidence that the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae still used today for making bread, beer, and wine and which occurs naturally on grapes, has been responsible for wine fermentation since the late 4th millennium. They also suggest it may have been used as an inoculum in beer brewing and to get the bread dough to rise. [6] [7] The identification of Spn with poppy (e.g. Beinlich) is disputed by some scholars. [8] On the transliteration and pronunciation of Ancient Egyptian [9] According to Maria Rosa Guasch-Jané et al.: "The origin of the ancient Egyptian drink Shedeh revealed using LC/MS/MS", Journal of Archaeological Science 33 (2006) pp.98-101, who analyzed the residue from a New Kingdom amphora which had contained Shedeh of very good quality of the House-of-Aton, this beverage was made from red grapes. The pSalt 825 describes its preparation as follows: It is [/////] repeat the filtration; heating again. This is the way to prepare the Shedehand according to an inscription at Denderah it is the beautiful work of Horus in the lab through the cooked extracts of Shesmou, the god of the press[10] A study of Rosa Lamuela-Raventos and Maria Rosa Guasch-Jané of the university of Barcelona who analyzed residue in six wine jars found in the tomb of Tutankhamen found that five of them did not contain syringic acid which is found in red wines only.[11] [12] Cf. this footnote on millet [13] These seals are often important historical records, at times even unique ones, for establishing the length of royal reigns and the like [14]. [15] For example, a jar from the tomb of Tutankhamen bears the inscription: Year 5, sweet wine of the House-of-Aten [from] Tharu. Chief vintner Penamun.[16] The pekha (pxA) drink features in many offering lists in Old Kingdom mastabas, among many other beverages, variety being the spice of both life and death: 2 portions of djesert-jar beverage, 2 portions of djeseret-yatet beverage, 2 portions of henqet beer, 2 portions of sekhepet (sxp.t) beverage, 2 portions of pekha (pxA) juice, 2 (portions) of sesher (sSr) beverage in djuyu (Dwj.w) jars, 2 portions of figs, 2 portions of wine, 2 (portions) of abes (abs) jar wine, 2 portions of Buto wine, 2 portions of Pelusium wine, 2 portions of Hamu (HAm.w) wineThe sSr beverage may have been a dairy product, sSr having the meaning of stroking, milking. |
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 | [2] Patrick A. Mcgovern : Wine for eternity | |
| [6] Duccio Cavalieri et al.: Evidence for S. cervisiae Fermentation in Ancient Wine | |
| [11] Tutankhamen liked his wine white (New Scientist, 16 February 2006 ) | |
| [14] Elaine A. Evans: Dynasty I Jar Sealings | |
| Hideto Ishida: Two Different Brewing Processes Revealed from Two Ancient Egyptian Mural Paintings | |
| Alan D. Eames: Beer, Women, and History | |
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| Beer | |
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| Explore the city of the hawk: Brewery | |
| The origins and ancient history of wine | |
| Wine in Ancient Egypt | |
| Ancient Egyptian alcohol | |
 | Pressing the grapes, scene from the tomb of Petosiris | |
| Ancient Egyptian Alcohol | |
| Drinking tube and strainer (MFA site) | |
| Soldier drinking beer with the help of a drinking tube and strainer (MFA site) | |
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