When the tomb of Egypt’s King Tutankhamun was discovered in
1922, it contained six clay jugs of red and white wine, each detailing the
wine’s name, origin, and quality. Ancient Egyptian tombs were buried with the items
they needed in the afterlife. The tombs were filled with everyday items,
jewelry, and apparently wine.
Wine was referred to as Irp and was consumed mostly by royals
and their families. The oldest Egyptian wine was discovered in the city of
Abydos. A chamber in the tomb contained some 700 sealed wine jars from
approximately 3150 BC.
Figs, dates, palm trees, pomegranates were used in Egyptian
wines. Grapes were not indigenous to Egypt due to the climate and were imported
from regions near Georgia, Iran, and Armenia. By 3000BC, grapes were grown
locally in the Nile Delta valley. Kings established vineyards next to their
palaces and, and wineries were set up adjacent to the Nile to keep up with
demand from royals and their families.
George, do you know if there are Egyptian wines still made from locally sourced produce? I don't think I've ever heard of a fig or date wine!
ReplyDeleteAs a former Ancient Greek major, I can comment that elsewhere in the ancient world, wine was a very big deal, and central to certain religious rituals well before the advent of Christianity. Wine appears a lot throughout Homer, as a gateway to sharing stories and being more truthful.
ReplyDeleteI'll confess that my childhood dream was to be an Egyptologist, so was thrilled to see this post (especially given the renewed attention to Tutankhamun's tomb in the last few months--specifically the theory (I believe unwarranted) that it may hide the undisturbed burial of his mother-in-law, Nefertiti, which could eclipse his tomb as the greatest discovery from the pharaonic era). Wine dockets are ENORMOUSLY important to the study of the pharaohs, as they were meticulously dated and labeled (even to identifying the master vintner) and represent one of few alternative sources we have to the often heavily-damaged or subsequently edited "king lists" in determining the chronology and identity of the ancient pharaohs. They are also critical to dating numerous significant events. Mary Murray has a book out covering the subject in great detail and hypothesizes that years four, five and nine were the best vintages of Tutankhamun's reign given the abundance of their representation in the tomb. It appears that four or five years would have been considered "old" for ancient Egyptian vintages. Going to Tori's question, am not aware that fig or date wine production has continued on a noticeable scale in modern Egypt, but given the wide exposure of the ancient world to Egyptian wine, it's possible they've had an influence on modern Mediterranean techniques (even in storage, the Egyptians were one of the earlier cultures after the Neolithic period to use vases called amphorae, which can be subsequently observed in Greek, Roman and Chinese winemaking).
ReplyDeleteJeff