The wild
grape never grew in ancient Egypt.
Did
you know...?
Many
of the Museum's millon+ artifacts in its collections
relate
to fermented beverages or cuisine. (Think of Greek classical
pottery and Dionysus cavorting with his satyrs and maenads!)
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Yet a thriving
royal winemaking industry had
been established in the Nile Deltamost likely due to Early Bronze
Age trade between Egypt and Palestine, encompassing modern Israel,the
West Bank and Gaza, and Jordanby at least Dynasty 3 (ca. 2700
B.C.), the beginning of the Old Kingdom period. Winemaking scenes appear
on tomb walls, and the accompanying offering lists include wine that
was definitely produced at vineyards in the Delta. By the end of the
Old Kingdom, five winesall probably made in the Deltaconstitute
a canonical set of provisions, or fixed "menu," for the afterlife.
Early
Dynastic "wine jar" and stopper from a royal tomb at Abydos,
Egypt.
Close
up of the stopper. It bears the name of Den, a Dynasty 1 pharaoh.
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The evidence
for winemaking in the Delta during the preceding Early Dynastic Period
(Dynasties 1 and 2) is more inferential. Rather than recording a large
number of wine jars in an offering list, actual jars in large quantities
were buried in the tombs of the pharoahs at Abydos
and those of their families at Saqqara,
the main religious centers. The jars are stoppered with a round pottery
lid and a conical clay lump that was pressed over the lid and tightly
around the rim. The clay stopper was generally impressed with multiple
cylinder seal impressions giving the name of the pharoah.
...such
seals have been interpreted as a primitive kind of wine
label...
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While chemical
tests have yet to verify that the Dynasty 1 and 2 jars contained wine,
less common seal impressions on the jar stoppers do include hieroglyphic
signs for "grapevine/vineyard" (see drawing at top
of page) and possible geographic locations (e.g., Memphis, the northern
capital, near Saqqara), in addition
to the king's name. Such seals have been interpreted as a primitive
kind of wine label, possibly giving the location of the winery and its
owner. The impressions with only the king's name might then be an abbreviated
form of registration for jars that generally contained wine. Viniculture
in Egypt must have taken some time to develop, and the Early Dynastic
"wine jars" may well represent the first "fruits" of the nascent industry.
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