Religion in ancient Egypt occupied a great space of attention in a way that may allow us to count the Egyptians to be the most faithful people to their gods in the ancient times. In fact ancient Egypt heritage is the richest in number of religious structures and religious scripts. Once we search for ancient Egypt welfare indications we reach one bold fact which is gods of ancient were the luckiest. Egypt was first ever to produce the wine, the beer and the ale and certainly the Egyptians gods had their share. The wine produce was so common that scenes of tombs of Nobles never ceased to depict the techniques of making it. The amount of scenes of alcoholic drinks presented to gods is countless that scholar have to admit that Egyptian were alcoholic nation.
Egyptians were fortunate with weather as they enjoyed a stable one which helped in growing the best grapes and to keep the finest vine- yards, the scene above”1” is from the tomb of Vizier Sennefer , 1300 B.C, it represents a large arbour tree of grapes which is a part of the tomb’s ceiling. Tombs and houses of Aristocratic Egyptians were often to include a winery. The most incredible number of alcoholic containers which is estimated to exceed one thousand jar their shards were discovered in Sakkara under the step pyramid of king Zoser. Generally the Egyptian were keen to save records of making their alcoholic drinks to avoid obliterating that secretes of that unique art.
The carving above “2” is from Sakkara and represents the workmen while sliding a massive pair of wine jars in the storage. The carving is found in the mastaba tomb of the judge and the noble Ka gem ni.
The carving above “3” represents king Thutmoses III while serving god Horus the Erap wine jars. The second common scene of offerings is the one of gods food. Gods food is often shown laid on offering tables that are presented by the pharaoh. Gods generally offered the best of what was grown in any field and the best of any product as their satisfaction is essential to maintain the wealth and the fertility of the country. The pile of food provided to gods usually to contain variety of vegetables and samples of domesticated animals and changes are easily observed in scenes of offered food according to the dynasty and the Egyptian welfare. Most of old kingdom scenes of food offerings included birds except chicken and goose, also it had fruits apart from pomegranate! The Egyptian history mentions that the chicken and the pomegranate were introduced to Egypt then to Africa latter by the Egyptian king Thutmoses III just about 1300 B.C for the first time and both became tolerated by the Egyptians that no scene of food missed them ever since. The origin for the chicken , the pomegranate and the geese was ancient Syria. The goose was introduced by king Snefru about 2500 B.C after his expedition to Syria. Indeed observing the offering scenes can be an accurate source for getting familiar with the flora and fauna in ancient Egypt.
The carving “4” above from the temple of Dakka in Upper Egypt and it represents the food offered by King Erkamun to the gods and its noticeable the missing of the chicken and the pomegranate and it sounds that both were not common in Upper Egypt or lower Nuba yet.
The carving “5” above shows the addition of the chicken and the pomegranate to the traditional pile of gods food. It is remarkable that ancient Egyptian gods had favoured more of wine and food and less of intangible offerings. However intangible offerings were rare, we still to observe few scenes of flowers presented to feminine deities such as for Hathor who represented love and fertility in ancient Egypt.
Akhenaton the unique monotheist pharaoh who called for Aton to be the only god did not allow food or sacrifices for his god. In fact the oneness and infinity of Aton had no paradox with being him to be a simple god and would tolerate the intangibles. By Yasser Kamel to Museumegypt, All rights reserved.
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