Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Archeologists discover oldest brewery in Ancient Egypt


Wed 17 Feb 2021 | 05:36 PM
Ali Abu Dashish

Beer in ancient Egypt differs from this day a lot in characteristics and uses as it provided the ancient Egyptians with energy and important nutrients.

There is evidence of beer manufacturing in ancient Egypt dating back to 3000 BC. Beer and bread were among the most important wages in ancient Egypt before the advent of money. They were made from various materials such as barley, dates and sometimes wheat.

The grains were hammered into a mortar with a wooden mallet, then wet with water and kneaded and formed into irregular-shaped flat loaves of bread and baked incompletely.

Later, these loaves were cut and sifted in a large saucepan, where they were kneaded again and added to the water or sugary water resulting from the date infusion.

The dough is left to ferment then fermented dough is filtered, and the product is filled in pots.

The ancient Egyptians drink beer in ceremonies, religious gatherings, and funerary rites, and it was offered as an offering mainly to the goddess Sekhmet.

The ancient Egyptian was also keen to obtain beer in the other world by engraving it from among the dozens of offerings that the deceased was keen to engrave on the walls of his tomb, as the stages of beer-making appeared on the walls of the tombs since the old state, and from these cemeteries: the third cemetery of Marsa Ankh, and the fourth tomb of Sasham Nefer in Giza, Ptah Shepses in Abu Sir, Te, and Ra Shebses in Saqqara, and many other cemeteries.

Contributed by Ahmed Moamar