ANIMAL PROCESSING IN ANCIENT EGYPT

Cattle

Scenes of butchery of cattle, fish, and fowl arc probably more frequently depicted in tomb paintings and wooden models than any other scenes of food processing, except possibly the preparation of bread and beer.68 Pharaonic Egyptians ate meat, though the amounts and kinds probably correlated to class. Since it was expensive and time consuming to raise cattle, beef consumption was a prerogative primarily of the upper classes. Indeed, ownership of livestock, particularly cattle, was for the ancient Egyptians a mark of prestige and wealth. Tomb paintings and wooden models frequently illustrate inspection of herds of cattle or cattle being led in ceremonial procession.69 Butchery of cattle, its related activities, and the display of the butchcred parts, particularly the leg, were favorite religious and ceremonial motifs in tomb paintings dating from the late Third or early Fourth Dynasty, and remained so until the New Kingdom.70 One commonly represented scene preliminary to butchery was force-feeding animals in order to fatten them up. Additionally, most animals destined for the slaughterhouse had probably been castrated at an early age, although the process has not been recognized in any art historical source. Besides creating a more easily handled animal, castration has a favorable effcct on the texture and flavor of the meat.71

Pigs

Regardless of comments by classical authors and prohibitions common to Muslim countries today, the ancient Egyptians did eat pork. Pigs rarely appear in scencs in tomb paintings before the Eighteenth Dynasty, while archaeological excavations have recovered only sparse remains of pig bones for periods prior to the New Kingdom. Nevertheless, it seems likely that domesticated pig formed part of the diet as early as Neolithic times.72 Ongoing studies of evidence from sites dating to the New Kingdom indicate that pork was an important item in the diet of the common people. Nakht, the temple weaver of the Twentieth-Dynasty Pharaoh Sethnakhte, at Deir cl-Bahri, for example, apparently enjoyed pork, although, as the autopsy of his mummy indicates, he had contracted trichinosis from the undercooked meat. Inhabitants of the workmen's villages at Amarna and Deir el-Medina raised pigs and goats in pens for their own consumption and, perhaps, for sale.73

Fowl

Used as hieroglyphic symbol, included in offering lists, depicted frequently in Fowl relief, sculpture, and painting, and associated with certain deities, such as Horus, birds played a major role in Egyptian life. Poultry, including pigeons, doves, quail, partridges, ducks, geese, and various other aquatic birds, along with their eggs, was eaten by members of all social orders.74 As with fish, the trapping of birds and processing them were often depicted in tomb paintings. So, for exampie, birds are frequently shown being trapped with nets in marshy areas along the Nile. Like cattle, the Egyptians also force-fed some of the larger birds, such as geese, before butchering.75

Butchery of cattle

The slaughter of cattle — butchery of pigs has yet to be recognized in any Butchery of cattle artistic representation — almost invariably followed the same sequence, though various steps in the process are often omitted in painted scenes from one tomb to another.76 The animal was led either directly to the abattoir from the field where the herd was kept or first to a stable where it was force-fed and fattened, and then conducted to the place of slaughter where it was tied to a tethering stone.77 The butcher' assistants felled the animal by lassooing his legs and tripping it, tied up its legs, and held it still. The butcher first slit the animal's throat, while an assistant held a bowl to catch the first blood that !lowed out. This he presented to a temple priest for inspection.78 Whether the examination was to ascertain its purity or to determine from its look and smell if the animal were healthy is unknown. Likewise, besides as an additive to medicines, it is uncertain for what purpose the blood was later used, whether employed in some ritual or prepared in some fashion as a food. In several paintings, near the butchery scene workmen attend to a kettle placed over a fire. What the cauldron contains is uncertain, but some scholars identify it as blood being boiled to make a pudding. Next, the butcher ceremoniously removed the foreleg, flayed the animal, and set about butchering the rest of the carcass, either there or in another part of the abattoir. The portions of meat were processed into various prescribed cuts or shapes.79

Abattoir

Remains of an abattoir in the Old Kingdom funerary temple of Raneferef near Abusir show a two-story building, 15.0 m. χ 27 m., possessed of an unroofed front room equipped with three tethering blocks. Three other rooms, one of which still possessed a mud-brick chopping block, served for subsequent butchering. Signs of burning in fireplaces indicate that the meat was cooked in the same rooms in which it was jointed. The abattoir contained several other rooms for storing the meat.80 Although numerous tomb paintings illustrate the butchery sccne, the wooden model of a butcher's shop from the Middle Kingdom Tomb of Meket-re (PI. 16) provides an excellent visual conception of the l complete process and offers a close structural parallel with the abattoir at Abusir.81 The shop is divided into two parts. The front room has a tall ceiling with the front wall open near the top to allow circulation of air. The back room is divided into two stories, but with a ceiling shorter than the one in the front room. In the latter room attendants arc in the act of butchering two trussed-up animals lying on the floor. One man wields the knife; another holds a bowl to catch the blood.82 Butchered meat already hangs on ropes stretched across the mezzanine level of the back room. The cuts of meat come in various sizes and shapes. Those in the model of Meket-re included rib sections cut into large flat pieces, round and shoulder cuts in circular shape, and, most frequently, limb muscles cut into the shape of equal-sided triangles.83 New Kingdom abattoirs functioned in funerary temples at Thebes (Seti I and Rameses III), Abydos (Seti I), and Amarna (house of Panehsy, Overseer of the Cattle of the Aten, in the city, and various chapels in the workmen's village).84

Butchery tools

Butchery technology shows clear improvements over what had been practiced Butchery tools in the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods, both in terms of well-constructed tools and more elaborate preservation techniques. Flint knives, used in the Predynastic period and earlier, continued to be used until the First Dynasty when the Egyptians developed copper blades. From then on they employed both copper and flint knives, although, due to a shortage of flint, most New Kingdom knives were primarily made of metal.85 Knives came in numerous shapes, not all of which can be associated with a particular type of butchery, however. A few New Kingdom knives have the shape of the foreleg of a bull, and so were probably used most often for butchering cattle, although fishermen are shown using this type of knife in the Tomb of Puyemre at Thebes. Microwear analysis on Egyptian knives has shown that at least one form, called the "fish-tail" blade, was used to cut meat.86 The Egyptians also had a metal "chopper" useful for cutting through bone. The butchery offish and fowl used knives similarly shaped but smaller than those used to butcher cattle. Fishermen, for example, processed fish with a triangular-shaped blade, more like a cleaver, and at least four other similarly shaped knives, including the "fish-tail" blade. The same types of knives served to cut up birds.87

Through the period of the Old Kingdom, blades and handles were made of the same material, but in the Middle Kingdom handles were wrapped in leather strips. This made grasping more comfortable for the user, and also allowed for a stronger grip when manipulating it to cut tough hides and bones. Scholars have yet to devote serious study to Egyptian knives, and a typology of shapes remains a significant lacuna. Modern archaeological experimentation, however, has shown that flint knives were sharper and held their edge longer than metal ones. Some paintings show butchers with knife sharpeners, apparently wooden or perhaps basalt sticks, hanging from their belts or being used to retouch a dull blade.88

One interesting sidelight comes from excavations at the workmen's village near Amarna.89 A study of cut marks on cattle, pig, and goat bones found that butchers carefully used small, sharp knives, or sometimes choppers, on the smaller animals but clcavers or axes wielded rather bluntly on the large ones.

Rosemary Luff has suggested that the care and skill utilized for butchery of the smaller animals stemmed from a desire to obtain the greatest amount of the meat from animals that had been raised in pens in the village. She goes on to state that cattle bones, unlike those for pig and goat, received rough treatment, and showed signs of rude force imparted with heavy axes or cleavers. She proposes that this might have resulted from unskilled and less careful butchers who formed part of a work gang engaged in large-scale butchery for a temple inside the city. Following the initial butchery, the meat was probably carried to the workmen's village where villagers processed it further using knives.90

Cooking meat

The dry Egyptian heat required that animal foods be eaten soon after slaughter or the meat preserved in some fashion. If immediate consumption was desired, the animals could be cooked in a variety of ways. Meat animals, such as cattle, hogs, wild game, and the larger birds, could be roasted on a spit.91 Meat was occasionally grilled, and possibly, fried, though again the evidence is sparse. In a New Kingdom house at Deir el-Medina excavators found a limestone grill bearing on its surface traces of grease and evidence of burning. The bottom had been hollowed out to allow it to be placed over hot coals to cook the food placed on top. Fowl, which had been split open and cleaned in a manner similar to a process called spatchcocking, were found in an Eighteenth-Dynasty tomb at Deir el-Medina, but whether they had been grilled is debatable. Fish may have also been prepared in this manner, but examples are lacking.92 The most frequently represented cooking motif for a variety of animals was boiling. A relief from the Old Kingdom Tomb of Nianchchnum and Chnumhotep shows cooks boiling fish in a cauldron placed over an open fire, while a painting from the Tomb of Rameses III depicts meat being similarly prepared. Paintings from the Tomb of Ken-amun show a similar scene, but here the cauldron rests on top of a box oven.93

Meat preservation

If any delay in consumption were anticipated, then the meat would have to be Meat preservation preserved and stored. Although the prevalent method of preserving meat was by drying, methods of preparation and storage varied according to the size of the animal and to the type and amount of meat to be processed. Large animals, such as cattle, pigs, sheep, and goats, were butchered and the meat cut into smaller pieces; most fish and fowl were preserved essentially whole. The model 6 slaughter house of Meket-re (PI. 16) possessed a tall ceiling and clerestory opening in the front room that provided for an airy enclosure that served to cool the hanging meat and to facilitate its drying94.־ Meat cut into various joints and hanging on ropes to dry forms a common motif in butchery scenes in numerous tomb paintings.95 At Amarna and Malkata, excavators have found jars with a wide mouth and belly, measuring ca. 65 cm. tall and 25 cm. wide and bearing painted inscriptions identifying the contents as "preserved meat."96 Although cattle are the usual animals shown in butchery scenes, it is a safe assumption that other large animals were preserved in a similar fashion.

Among the hanging joints of meat pictorially represented in several tomb paintings are what appear to be long, narrow strips of'dried meat. Salima Ikram identifies them as biltong, and from this argues that the Egyptians not only dried their meat, but also salted and spiced it.97 Conclusive evidence for processes other than drying, however, is mostly lacking. The best archaeological evidence comes from victual mummies, joints of meat wrapped in linen and known primarily from New Kingdom tombs, such as those of Amenhotep II and Tuthmosis III. Although testing on several examples of biltong-like slabs and "steaks" yielded no evidence for spices, it did discover that the meat had been salted. The best evidence for salting and drying comes from the preservation of smaller animais, birds and fish.

Tomb paintings frequently depict birds being plucked and gutted, with heads and feet sometimes removed. They are represented at one time hung up to dry and at another time being placed into amphorae. What was in the amphorae is unknown, but an amphora found in the Tomb of Kha contained plucked, beheaded, and eviscerated birds which showed signs of having been salted.98 Drying and possibly salting (whether by kenching, layering, or brining is unknown), therefore, are the only two preservation techniques for which strong evidence exists." That the Egyptians used combinations of these two processes plus other methods commonly employed today in the area and conceivably known by the ancient Egyptians, such as smoking, is at present incapable of proof.

Fat rendering

Cooking and preservation of the animal itself was not the only source of animal foods that required processing. Animal byproducts were also important. In addition to meat and blood, cattle and other large animals provided two important byproducts: fat and milk. Fat was used as a food, a medicine, and a fuel for lamps, and the creating of fat was one of the purposes of castrating and forcefeeding some animals. The art historical evidence for fat rendering, that is the removal of water from fat by boiling and then pressing, is ambiguous at best.

Two scenes, identified as depicting fat rendering appear on the walls of a room in the temple of Seti I at Abydos. An inscription on one scene specifies that fat is being chopped up. But, since both scenes show sack presses at work, an instrument unnecessary to render fat and unparalleled either in ancient or modern contexts of fat rendering, Ikram calls the entire interpretation into question. She does, however, reinterpret a scene in the model of the slaughterhouse from the Tomb of Meket-re, usually interpreted as boiling blood for pudding, as rendering fat. Archaeological evidence for the process is not forthcoming, but vessels identified by labels as having held ox, sheep, pig, or goose fat have been found at Malkata, Amarna, and Deir el-Medina.100

Butter and cheese

The Egyptians butchered primarily oxen, reserving cows for breeding and for Butter and cheese producing milk. Artistic representations of milking cows, such as appear on the wall of the Old-Kingdom chapel of Akhethetep and in sunk relief on the Eleventh-Dynasty sarcophagus of Kawit, are not uncommon. Milk was used as a food and medicine, and strong, but inconclusive, evidence indicates that Pharaonic Egyptians processed milk into butter and cheese.101 Chemical analysis of the contents of two jars found in the First-Dynasty Tomb of Hor-Aha at Saqqara concludcd that the vessels held cheese, but the type of animal from which the cheese came was undeterminable. A wall painting from the New Kingdom Tomb of Ipy at Thebes shows what appear to be balls of cheese being exchanged in a barter scene. This cheese may have come from goats, since several of the animals appear to the left within the same register and in the one just below it. Since no Egyptian word has been unequivocally connected with either cheese or butter and the interpretation of the physical and art historical evidence continues to be challenged, the question of the existence of either byproduct before the Ptolemaic period must remain open.102

Notes

68 Most of the discussion on butchery of animals is based on Salima Ikram's exhaustive study of butchery in Pharaonic Egypt, Choice Cuts: Meat Production in Ancient Egypt (Louvain: Uitgeverij Peeters, 1995).
69 Food of the wealthy: Montet, Eveiyday Life, p. 89; cattle: Davies, Mastaba of Ptahhetep and Akhethetep, 1: Pl. XXX; 2: Pl. XIV; idem, Tomb ofKen-amun, Pl. XXXIII; Newberry, Beni Hasan, 1:Pl. X X X (Tomb of Chnemhotep); idem, El Bersheh, 1: Pl. XII (Tomb of Tehuti-hetep); Winlock, Models, pp. 19-22 (Model C), and Allan S. Gilbert, "Zooarchaeological Observations on the Slaughterhouse of Meketre," JEA 74 (1988): 70-73.
70 Ikram, Choice Cuts, pp. 41, 82. For a list of tombs containing paintings displaying butchery of cattle, in particular, see ibid., Table I, pp. 297-303. See also Winlock, Models, pp. 23-25 (Model E), and Gilbert, "Zooarchaeological Observations," pp. 78-89.
71 Force feeding: Newberry, Beni Hasan, 1: Pl. X X X (Tomb of Chnemhotep); Davies, Tomb of Kenamun, Pl. LXI; Saleh, Three Old Kingdom Tombs, PI. 10 (Tonil) of Khenty); Torgny Säve-Söderbergh, The Old Kingdom Cemetery at Hamra Dom (El-Qasr I Va Es-Saiyad) (Stockholm: The Royal Academy of Letters, History, and Antiquities, 1994), PI. 10; Winlock, Models, pp. 2223־ (Model D). Artistic representations of stabled cattle apparently lacking a scrotum has suggested to some the habit of castrating cattie, and so the presence of oxen in Pharaonic Egypt. Not every scholar has accepted this inference. See Gilbert, "Zooarchaeological Observations," pp. 73-77, esp. note 25, p. 75.
72 Herodotus 2.47. On pigs in Egypt, sec Vandier, Manuel, 5: Fig. 1 12; Ikram, Choice Cuts, pp.2933־ , especially Table IV, p. 305, in which are listed tombs where pigs appear pictorially represented. See also H. M. Hecker, "A Zooarchaeological Inquiry into Pork Consumption in Egypt from Prehistoric to New Kingdom Times," JARCE 19 (1982): 59-71, esp. Table 1, pp. 63-64; Robert L. Miller, "Hogs and Hygiene,'5 JEA 76 (1990): 125-40. Large quantities of pig bone have also been recovered from Middle Kingdom Kahun. See Wilson, Egyptian Food and Drink, p. 35.
73 The evidence for trichinosis comes from the discovery of a Trichinella spiralis cyst in muscle fiber. Detection of tapeworm ova also implies the consumption of meat. Nicholas B. Millet,Gerald D. Hart, Theodore A. Reyman, Michael R. Zimmerman, and Peter K. Lewin, " ROM I: Mummification for the Common People," in Mummies, Disease, and Ancient Cultures. Aidan Cockburn, Eve Cockburn, and Theodore A. Re yma n , eds. 2 ״
74 Ikram, Choice Cuts, pp. 2.3 29; Gardiner, Egyptian Grammar, pp. 467 74; Petrie, Egyptian Hieroglyphs of the First and Second Dynasties, Figs. XII XV.
75 See, e. g., Newberry, Beni Hasan, 1: Pl. XXX; idem, El Bersheh, Pis. XVII and XXI; Davies, Tomb of Ken-Amun, PI. LI; and Harpur, "Identity and Positions of Relief Fragments," pp. 35-36. Trapping birds: Vandier, Manuel, 5: 307 98; force-feeding birds: Darby et al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, 1: Fig. 6.17 (Tomb ofMercruka); Newberry, El Bersheh, 1: Pl. XXII (Tomb of Tehuti-hetep); Breasted, Egyptian Servant Statues, pp. 44-45; Wilson, Egyptian Food and Drink, p. 39, Fig. 42 (Tomb of Kagemni, Sixth Dynasty). On the purpose of scenes of trapping and processing birds in tomb paintings, see comments in regard to fishing scenes in note 103, p. 174.
76 See esp. Vandier, Manuel, 5: 128 306, who describes in detail the butchery process shown in various tombs dating from the Old to the New Kingdoms. Cf., as well, Ikram, Choice Cuts, pp.41-54; Montet, Scenes de la vie privée, pp. 150 79; and Strouhal, Life of the Ancient Egyptians, p. 130.
77 Although several tomb paintings illustrate force-feeding, the best representation of this phase of the process can be seen in the early Middle Kingdom model (Model C) from the Tomb of Meketre. The stable has its front half open to the sky, while the back part is a covered stall where attendants force-feed three animals to fattened them. Winlock, Models, pp. 22 23, and Pis. 17, 59; Gilbert, "Zooarchaeological Observations," pp. 73 78.
78 Trussing the animal: Vandier, Manuel, 5: Fig. 88. 3-4; slitting the animal's throat: Gilbert, "Zooarchacological Observations," pp. 8386־ ; Vandi e r , Manuel, 5: Fig. 95.1; and Strouhal, Life of the Ancient Egyptians, Fig. 139; inspection of blood: Paget and Pirie, Tomb of Ptah-hetep, Pl. XXXVI;Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, 2: 375. See also references in Henry George Fischer, "'Milk in Everything Cooked' (Sinuhe Β 91-92)," in Varia. Egyptian Studies 1 (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1976), note 14, pp. 98 99.
79 Ikram (Choice Cuts, pp. 180 82) doubts that, as often thought, blood was used in foods, such as pudding. But, cf. Wilson, Egyptian Food and Drink, p. 41; Winlock, Models, p. 24; and Gilbert, "Zooarchaeological Observations," pp. 79-80. Removing foreleg: Vandier, Manuel, 5: Fig. 86, 2-3. 
80 Strouhal, Life of the Ancient Egyptians, p. 130; Ikram, Choice Cuts, pp. 91 93, and Fig. 19. Archaeological remains of three other Old Kingdom abattoirs have been uncovered at the cult temples of Userkaf, Neferirkare, and Niuserre. Ibid., pp. 93~94.
81 Winlock, Models, pp. 23-25, and Pis. 18, 19, 21, 24, 60-61 (Model D). For the place of butchery, see also Ikram, Choice Cuts, pp. 81-108, and Gilbert, "Zooarchaeologieal Observations," pp. 78 82.
82 Ikram (Choice Cuts, pp. 46 48) suggests, based on her observations of modern Egyptian butchery, that the bull's foreleg was pumped back and forth to facilitate the blood flow so that the blood would spurt into the bowl rather than flow down the animals neck.
83 Gilbert, "Zooarchacologica1 Observations," pp. 80 82, 86 88; VVinlock, Models, pp. 2425 ־ Cf. Davies, Tomb of Antefoker, Pl. IX; Wreszinski, Atlas, 3: Taf. 255a. A painting from the Tomb of Djhutnofer at Thebes shows workmen carrying joints of meat and jars up stairs to a room where a workman sits at a table; in the background cuts of meat hang from a rope. Salima Ikram, "Did the Ancient Egyptians Eat Biltong?" CArchJ 5, no. 2 (Oct. 1995): 288. 84 Ikram, Choice Cuts, pp. 9 6 - 106 .
85 Ikram, Choice Cuts, pp. 66-69. H,i Leg-shaped knives: Susan K. Doll, in Egypt's Golden Age, p. 50, Figs. 20 21; Fish-tail knife: Ikram, Choice Cuts, p. 66. Butchers of cattle shown in the Old Kingdom Tomb of Ti wield knives similar to Ikram's Type G. Sec Epron et al, L· Tombeau de Τι, 1: Pl. L. 
86 For a list of twelve Egyptian knives arranged by shape, see Ikram, Choice Cuts, Fig. 14, page 64. The "fish-tail" knife is listed as Type J .
87 Ikram, Choice Cuts, pp. 65-66, esp. Fig. 14. Ikram (p. 65) postulates that the triangular-shaped knife (Fig. 14K) may have been used to scale fish. Although Ikram lists the knife shapes used by fishermen as 14C, D, I, J , and K. fishermen in the Tomb of Ti use a knife similar to her Type G. See Henri Wild, Le Tombe de Τι (Cairo: L'Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, 1953), 2: Pl. CXXIII; Tylor and Griffith, Tomb of Paheri, Pl. IV (triangular blade); Brewer and Friedman, Fish and Fishing, p. 14, Fig. 1.8 (Tomb of Urarna). For birds, see Tylor and Griffith, Tomb of Paheri, PI. IV; Davies, Tomb of Antefoker, Pl. VIII; Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, 2: 388, Fig. 278.
88 Ikram, Choice Cuts , 7 3 70 . קנן ; Breasted, Egyptian Servant Statues,.36~35 
89 Rosemary Luff, "Butchery at the Workmen's Village (WV), Tell-el-Amarna, Egypt," in Whither Environmental Archaeology? Rosemary Lull" a nd Peter Rowley-Conwy, eds. (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 1994), pp. 158-70.
90 For the raising of pigs for food in the workmen's village at Amarna, see esp. Janet Richards, Linda Hulin, Ian Shaw, and Barry Kemp, Amama Reports III, pp. 60-79. See also Kemp, "Food for an Egyptian City," pp. 13945־, for the conveyance of meat in jars to the village and for raising pigs and goats.
91 Vandier, Manuel, 4: 265-71, and Fig. 121; Darby et al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, Fig. 6.24; Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, 2: 388, Fig. 278.3.
92 Darby et al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, p. 758 (frying); Salima Ikram, "Food For Eternity. What the Ancient Egyptians Ate & Drank. Part 1: Meat, Fish, Fowl," KMT 5, no. 1 (Spring 1994): 32; idem, Choice Cuts," p. 161; John K. McDonald , in Egypt's Golden Age, p. I l l , Nos. 9 2 9 3 ־ (grills).
93 Cattle: Wreszinski, Atlas, 2: Taf. 93b; 3: Taf. 255A; Vandier, Manuel, 4: 260-62, and Figs. 116-18; Darby et al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, 6.24; Davies, Tomb of Ken-amun, Pis. LIX, I.XVII; Moussa and Altenmüller, Das Grab des Nianchchnum und Chnumhotep, Taf. 37b; Davies, Tomb of Antefoker, Pl. VIII. See also, Newberry, Beni Hasan, 1 : Pl. XII.
94 Gilbert, "Zooarchaeological Observations," p. 79, and note 35.
95 See, e. g., Ikram, Choice Cuts, Fig. 18; Vandier, Manuel, 4: Figs. I 16-18.
96 Kemp, "Food for an Egyptian City," pp. 139-43. 97 Ikram, "Did the Ancient Egyptians Eat Biltong?" pp. 283 89. 
97 Ikram (Choice Cuts, pp. 145-74) discusses numerous ways the Egyptians could have preserved meat, though, she concludes, cvidence is lacking for some of the possibilities.
98 Ikram, Choice Cuts, p. 157. O n page 159, Ikram seems less sure of the evidence. See, e. g., Tylor and Griffith, Tomb of Paheri, Pl. IV; Davies, Tomb of Nakht, Pl. XXVI; idem, Tomb of Rekhmi-rë', Pl. XLVI. For art historical evidence for poultry processing, see Ikram, Choice Cuts, Figs. 16-17, and esp. Table II, p. 303. Pigeon and quail were served in the meal found in the First-Dynasty Tomb 3477 at Saqqara. The quail had been gutted and cooked, but the head and wings remained. See Emery, Funerary Repast, p. 6.
99 Detailed discussion of the various methods of salting will be postponed until the Roman Period when evidence for it is unequivocal and more plentiful.
100 Ikram, Choice Cuts, pp. 175-80, esp. Fig. 55; YVinlock, Models, p. 24; Gilbert, "Zooarchacological Observations," p. 79, note 36.
101 Davies, Mastaba ofPtahhetep and Akhethetep, 2: Pl. XVII; Saleh et al, Egyptian Museum Cairo, No. 68. See also, Norman De Garis Davies, The Rock Tombs of Deir el-Gebrawi. Part IP Tomb of^au and Tombs of the Northern Croup (London: Egypt Exploration Fund, 1902), Pl. X IX (Tomb of Asa). On
milk generally, see Darby et al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, pp. 760 72; Fischer, '"Milk in Everything Cooked1 , p. 97; a n d Sist, "Bevande nei Testi dclle Piramidi," pp. 135-37.
102 Ahmed Zaky and Zaky Iskander, "Ancient Egyptian Cheese," ASAE 41 (1942): 295 313. Acceptance of Pharaonic milk processing: Ikram, "Food for Eternity. Part I," P· 32; Wilson, Egyptian Food and Drink, p. 47, Strouhal, Life of the Ancient Egyptians, p. 132. Denial of Pharaonic milk processing: Darby et al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, pp. 772 75.

By Robert I. Curtis in "Ancient Food Technology",Koninklijke Brill.NV, Leiden, 2001, excepts pp.165-173. Adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.

Share this post