ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DRINKS AND DRUGS

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DRINKS

20120216-beer Neferetiabet_c.jpg
drinking beer As early as 1450 B.C., depictions on wall painting from a pharaoh’s tomb show, the ancient Egyptians practiced a form of water purification. It shows one person pouring water into a vessel and another sucking on a hose apparently to get the water to go through a series filters.

On drinks found in Nubia, ancientsudan.org reported: “Since the people of Nubia had domesticated animals, milk would have been a common drink. Strabo, a Roman geographer who lived in the first century B.C. writes that Kushites live on the “meats, blood, milk, and cheese.”(Strabo xvii Ch. 2: 2) Traces for milk have also been found on the teeth of Nubian mummies and pots.Wine was, one the most flourishing product in Nubia. Pottery containing wine was contained in almost every grave. At Kerma, dating to about 1600 B.C., 250 jars of wine were found deposited in a ground depression.10 The jars were turned upside down to prevent the odor of alcohol from spreading. About fourteen vine presses for producing wine were discovered in Sudan. Although vines were not apt for growth in arid and semi-arid environments like that of Northern Sudan, a limited production is possible.” [Source: Ancientfoods, ancientsudan.org, May 13, 2011]

Websites on Ancient Egypt: UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, escholarship.org ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Egypt sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Discovering Egypt discoveringegypt.com; BBC History: Egyptians bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians ; Ancient History Encyclopedia on Egypt ancient.eu/egypt; Digital Egypt for Universities. Scholarly treatment with broad coverage and cross references (internal and external). Artifacts used extensively to illustrate topics. ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt ; British Museum: Ancient Egypt ancientegypt.co.uk; Egypt’s Golden Empire pbs.org/empires/egypt; Metropolitan Museum of Art www.metmuseum.org ; Oriental Institute Ancient Egypt (Egypt and Sudan) Projects ; Egyptian Antiquities at the Louvre in Paris louvre.fr/en/departments/egyptian-antiquities; KMT: A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt kmtjournal.com; Egypt Exploration Society ees.ac.uk ; Amarna Project amarnaproject.com; Abzu: Guide to Resources for the Study of the Ancient Near East etana.org; Egyptology Resources fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk

Alcoholic Drinks in Ancient Egypt

In 2000 B.C. an Egyptian priest told a pupil. "I, thy superior, forbid thee to go to the taverns. Thou art degraded like the beasts." Ancient people, before the ancient Egyptians, found that if they crushed grapes or warmed and moistened grain, would bubble and produce a drink with a kick. Depictions of alcohol brewing in Egypt have been found on papyrus from around 3000 B.C.

Dr. Ethan Watrall wrote: The ancient Egyptians were known to be avid practitioners of fermentation. They purposefully created alcohol for the purpose of consumption. Fermentation occurs when unicellular organisms known as yeast consume sugars and convert them to alcohol and carbon dioxide over the course of several weeks. For example, beer is formed when sugars extracted from grains are consumed by yeast. Ancient Egyptian beer (not like the beer of today) was known to be produced on a large scale for sale and consumption. Evidence of industrial beer brewing facilities have been discovered at urban sites across the land including Hierakonpolis. Fermentation became ingrained in Egyptian society and later expanded to fermenting beer as a source of both income and calories. [Source Dr. Ethan Watrall, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Michigan State University, Brewminate, February 5, 2014]

A text called the “Teaching of Ani” written during the 18th Dynasty (1550 to 1292 B.C.) offers the following advice on drinking: “Do not indulge in drinking beer lest bad words come out of your mouth without you knowing what you are saying. If you fall and hurt yourself, no one will give you a helping hand. Your drinking companions will stand around saying, ‘Out with the drunkard!’ If someone comes to find you and talk to you, you will be discovered lying on the ground like a little child.” [Source: Nathaniel Scharping, Discover, September 22, 2016]

Mead in Ancient Egypt

Scientists believe there is a strong possibility that mead is world’s oldest alcoholic drink consumed by humans. It is thought to have been discovered before the invention of agriculture and ceramic pottery due to the prevalence of naturally occurring fermentation and the distribution of honey-producing bees worldwide. It is hard to pinpoint the exact historical origin of mead and there a strong possibility of multiple discovery by multiple groups prior to recorded history. With use of ceramic pottery and increasing use of fermentation in food processing to preserve surplus agricultural crops, evidence of mead makes appearances in the archaeological record — with the earliest most clear evience coming from pottery from northern China dating from at least 7000 B.C. with chemical signatures consistent with the presence of honey, rice, and organic compounds associated with fermentation. [Source Wikipedia]

Dr. Ethan Watrall wrote: The Egyptians were avid mead drinkers as well. Mead is essentially fermented honey. Honey is a naturally occurring and highly caloric food, which would prove to be of immense value in any ancient society. This was no different in Egypt where honey became of great importance. It was even mentioned as a fermentable in the Hymn to Ninkasi, a poem for the goddess of fermentation. As further evidence for the significance of honey is the existence of an Egyptian god of fertility, Min, who was referred to as the “master of wild bees”. Also, manuscript evidence seems to point to royally commissioned honey hunting parties protected by guards of archers. Honey was domesticated in the form of beekeeping to increase access to the supply. [Source Dr. Ethan Watrall, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Michigan State University, Brewminate, February 5, 2014]

So how was mead discovered in ancient times? I’m going to suggest a hypothesis put forth by Ken Schramm about the origin of mead/fermentation as a happenstance discovery in Egypt based on the following premises: 1) Yeast cells are found everywhere in the wild, floating around in the air and in/on things and 2) Honey hunters went on expeditions to retrieve honey and required vessels for storage.

Imagine you are a honey hunter and you have an animal-skin for carrying your water for the long journey and you come across a nice fat beehive. Not wanting the honey to go to waste and realizing your water skin is not full, you decide to be as efficient as possible and fill your skin with honey to take back home. After you arrive home, you put the water skin in storage until the honey is required. However, after a few days you notice the skin started to swell up and you open it to find the honey has mixed with the leftover water in your animal skin and it is a little bubbly and churning You decide to take a drink of the sweet liquid and to your surprise it tastes wonderful and a little hot. After a few more gulps you start to feel a little funny and happy.

What magic happened that turned the contents of your water skin into this elixir of the gods? We know now that a yeast culture must have been present in the animal skin that was then introduced to the buffet of sugar that honey provided. Fermentation occurred and mead was introduced to the population of Egypt. It would have been relatively simple to recreate the process and through time, perfect the art of fermentation of not only honey but other sugars as well.

Ancient Egyptian Beer

Egyptians are regarded by some historians as the inventors of beer. Made from barley, Egyptians beer was thick and nutritious. The fermentation process added essential B vitamins and amino acids converted from yeast. According to Egyptologist Zahi Hawass, they "had five types of beer with higher alcohol content than modern brews."

pouring beer

It is said the Ancient Egyptians believed that one day Osiris, god of agriculture, made a decoction of barley that had germinated with the sacred waters of the Nile, and then distracted by other urgent affairs, left it out in the sun and forgot it. When he came back the mixture had fermented. He drank it, and thought it so good that he let mankind profit by it. This was said to be the origin of beer. Most of the problems in the Moscow Mathematical Papyrus are algebraic pefsu problems. A pefsu measures the strength of the beer made from a hekat of grain.

Megan Garber wrote in The Atlantic: “Beer, some have argued, helped give birth to civilization. In ancient Egypt, sustaining humans through the vagaries of the hunt and the harvest, it was consumed by children as well as adults. It was drunk by the wealthy and the poor alike. It was an integral part of both religious ceremonies—Egyptians offered their thick, sweet version of the stuff up to their gods—and everyday life.” [Source: Megan Garber, The Atlantic, January 3, 2014 ]

The glyph for a beer jug also appears in the words: "Htpt" ("hotepet"-a bowl for bread offerings); "iaw r" (breakfast); "athw" ("atkhu"-brewers); "swr" ("sur"-drink); "hmu" ("hemu"-payment for employment); "Awt" ("ahut"-gifs, food); "Htp ntr" ("hotep netjer"-gods offerings); "hbbt" ("khabbit"-jar); "sTt" ("sejet"-beer jar); "Hnw" ("henu"-possessions, goods); "st ht" and "SAbw" ("set khet", "shahbu"-meal); "irTt" ("irtjet"-milk); "mhr" ("meher"-milk jar); "wdHw" and "Htp"("wedhu", "hotep"-offering); "msyt" ("mesyut"-supper).” [Source: ancientegyptonline.co.uk]

Ancient Egyptian Wine

20120216-wine Maler_der_Grabkammer_des_Nebam.jpg
collecting grapes Ancient Egyptian wine was made from a domesticated species of grape, “Vitis vinifera vinifera”. Early wine is believed to have been fermented by natural yeasts that blooms on the grape's skin. Some of it was sweetened with figs. Some of the best wines were produced in the Bahariya Oasis.

Patrick McGovern, and ancient wine expert and scientific director of the Biomolecular Archaeology Laboratory of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, said in ancient Egypt "you have illustrations inside the tombs showing how many jars of beer and wine from the Nile Delta are to be provided to the dead." New Kingdom tomb reliefs and paintings depicts rows of wine jars used in royal celebrations and elaborate wine cellars and storehouses in palaces and temples at Amarna and Thebes. The Great Papyrus Harris, one of the longest and best preserved manuscripts from ancient Egypt, shows Ramses III (1184-1153 B.C.) boasting of presenting 59,588 jars of wine to the chief Egyptian deity, Amun, at his temple in Thebes.

Much of ancient Egypts wine appears to have been imported from the Jordan valley. Wine found in Abydos, dated to 3000 B.C., was produced in produced in the Jordan Valley and had evidence of an ancient customs seal.

Ancient Egyptian Drugs

The Egyptians and Sumerians were probably using opium 4,000 years ago. There are references in Egyptian hieroglyphics to poppy extract being used to quiet crying children. The oldest known opium cultivators were people who lived around a Swiss lake in the forth millennium B.C.

The Egyptians took opium for pleasure and as a sedative. There are references in Egyptian hieroglyphics to opium poppy extract being used to quiet crying children.

Ceramic jugs, dated to 1,500 B.C., shaped like an opium capsules and containing stylized incisions were unearthed in Cyprus and believed to have held opium dissolved in wine that was traded with Egypt. Ivory pipes, over 3,200 years old and thought to have been used for smoking opium, were found in a Cyprus temple. Some tools found in Egypt may have been used for opium, but there is no firm evidence.

Ancient Egyptian Medical Cannabis

Cannabis was used by the ancient Egyptians to make rope. It may have also been consumed for pleasure or for medicine. Traces of THC (the active ingredient in cannabis) have been identified in an Egyptian mummy dated to 950 B.C.

Thomas Wrona wrote in Cannigma: In Egypt, medical cannabis use goes back for millennia. And while many different early cultures cultivated cannabis, the ancient Egyptians exemplified a truly holistic use of the plant. It’s even possible that cannabis — Egyptian hieroglyphs called it shemshemet — became popular before the great pyramids were built. [Source: Thomas Wrona, Cannigma]

Egypt’s historical use of shemshemet appears twofold. On one hand hemp may have been used for fiber and textile; on the other hand, the more psychoactive components of cannabis may have been used medicinally. Though many sources today appear authoritative in their claims that the ancient Egyptians used hemp for this and cannabis for that, a closer inspection of the evidence is needed.

While the exact timeline is less than crystal clear, cannabis was likely used in ancient Egypt as many as 5,000 years ago. Some speculate that depictions of the Egyptian Goddess of writing, Sheshat, are brimming with cannabis-inspired themes. In many paintings, she’s shown with a star-shaped leaf atop her head and a fibrous rope in her hand. Was Sheshat’s creative ability courtesy of some help from hemp?

Around 2,000 B.C., cannabis salves were used to treat eye sores and glaucoma. Today science has proven what the ancient Egyptians learned through centuries of experience: that cannabis is a potent anti-inflammatory which reduces intraocular pressure. Another Egyptologist, Lise Manniche, notes in her book An Ancient Egyptian Herbal that several texts dating back to the 18th century B.C. encouraged readers to “plant medicinal cannabis. ”

Liquids in Ancient Egyptian Temple Rituals

Mu-Chou Poo of the Chinese University of Hong Kong wrote: “In ancient Egypt the liquids most commonly used in temple rituals included wine, beer, milk, and water. The meaning of the rituals were intimately tied to the qualities of the liquid used as well as to the religious and mythological associations the liquids were known to possess. With the exception of beer, all the ritual offerings of liquids were connected in some way with the idea of rejuvenation. [Source: Mu-Chou Poo, Chinese University of Hong Kong, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2010, escholarship.org ]

“Of the numerous rituals recorded on temple walls, the offering of liquids occupied a rather large proportion. Here we discuss four kinds of liquids employed in temple rituals: wine, beer, milk, and water. The meaning of an individual ritual act was intimately related to the nature of the liquid employed, as well as to whatever religious and mythological associations the liquid was known to have. Certain deities might have some particular connections with a particular offering, as we shall see below. Yet as far as we can tell, there could be multiple recipients for the same kind of offering, and a particular deity could receive multiple offerings at different times.

Roman depiction of an Isis water ceremony

Milk in Ancient Egyptian Temple Rituals

Mu-Chou Poo of the Chinese University of Hong Kong wrote: “Since the function of milk is to nourish, and its white color is associated with purity, the significance of the offering of milk in temple rituals was also built around these allusions. Milk was often offered, for example, to Harpocrates (the child Horus), milk being a obvious source of nourishment for children: “May you be filled with milk from the breasts of the hesat-cow” ; “Take the milk, which is from the breast of your mother”. The result of nourishment was no doubt to strengthen the body, as the following texts indicate: “May your limbs live by means of the milk and your bones be healthy by means of the white Horus Eye [milk]....The king rejuvenates his [Osiris’s] body with what his heart desires [milk]”.

“Milk was also offered to other deities, among them Hathor and Osiris, in various rituals , especially in the Abaton-ritual, in which 365 bowls of milk were brought before Osiris daily . One offering liturgy reads: “Oh, ‘White [milk]’, which is from the breasts of Hathor. Oh, sweet [milk], which is from the breasts of the mother of Min; it entered the body of Osiris, the great god and lord of Abaton”. Here the whiteness of milk is clearly referenced, thus indicating milk as a liquid of purification. This is confirmed by such liturgical texts as “offering milk to his father and purifying [lit. overflowing] the offering of his ka,” or “purifying the offering of His Majesty with this White Eye of Horus [milk]”. Since the libation of water was metaphorically referred to as the “milk of Isis”, the reverse is also true. These general religious significations aside, there seem to be no further mythological or theological allusions that can be connected to milk.”

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, escholarship.org ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Egypt sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Tour Egypt, Minnesota State University, Mankato, ethanholman.com; Mark Millmore, discoveringegypt.com discoveringegypt.com; Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Discover magazine, Times of London, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, BBC, Encyclopædia Britannica, Time, Newsweek, Wikipedia, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “History of Warfare” by John Keegan (Vintage Books); “History of Art” by H.W. Janson Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.), Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.

Last updated August 2024