Understanding the news: Naqada III site reveals more about Egypt's earliest inhabitants, Pre-Dynastic Period

Understanding the news: Naqada III site reveals more about Egypt's earliest inhabitants, Pre-Dynastic Period
Investigations at Tell el-Farkha in the Nile Delta region have revealed evidence of animal burials, contracted human burials (a style typical of the era) and areas for brewing ancient Egyptian beer.
Sites in the Nile Delta are often difficult to excavate, being under almost constant cultivation and habitation. Usage and climate usually means that the preservation of archaeological finds can be much less common than sites in drier/desert regions to the south.
The finds in the report are dated to Naqada III (ca 3200-3000BCE), which is a Pre-Dynastic period, meaning they pre-date the time of the Pharaohs. As with many archaeological sites, layers of later usage lie on top. The image of tomb model brewers featured in the article comes from the much later Middle Kingdom period and shows the importance of daily beer-making in Egyptian life. Beer was consumed by people of all ages, and its ancient form would probably not be recognisable to modern consumers, as it was a cloudy but nutritious yeast drink.
"Dr. Ashawi also added that the mission discovered two more sites for beer production in addition to the 5 previously discovered one by the Polish mission which has been working at the site since 1998 which emphasises the importance of Tell El-Farkha in beer production as it is the only site in lower Egypt to have beer production facilities discovered and dated to Pre-Dynastic period."
The presence of 'breweries' indicates that the drink was being made on a more 'industrial' scale and suggests that it was being traded, since households generally brewed their own beer and baked their own bread.
Also at the site were cosmetic palettes, flint tools and pottery.

More information about the site in English/Polish from the Polish mission website:

Edit: Updated for Blogger
http://luxortimesmagazine.blogspot.com/2018/07/ancient-egyptian-5000-year-old-brewery.html



Comments

Post a Comment

To maintain the quality of discussion, please keep comments and questions on topic.