CEREALS IN ANCIENT EGYPT
Contents
1(iii) Storage and organization
1(v) Problems associated with cereals
a) Mythical and historical
In legend the cultivation of cereals was introduced into Egypt during the mythical reign of King Osiris. The myth of Osiris claims that after his death his body was dismembered and scattered throughout Egypt. This could represent the sowing or winnowing of the grain. The death and resurrection of Osiris could symbolize the annual harvest, in which the cereal is destroyed and sowing, in which the seed is buried, then a few months later the cereal returns from the dead. In mythical terms this is a resurrection and a regeneration.
Historically cereals were first cultivated in the Fayum region of Egypt (just below the Nile delta) around 5,000 B.C. This was triggered by the introduction of domesticated animals from Mesopotamia. These animals were draughted into tilling the land and threshing the corn.
b) Type of cereals
The main cereals grown were barley and wheat, but there is some doubt whether millet was grown in pre-dynastic Egypt as the millet found might have been wild millet. Sorghum was also cultivated and used by poorer people for bread and cakes. Originally only emmer wheat was grown but around 4,000 B.C. barley was introduced and soon accounted for about sixty percent of the corn harvest. In ancient Egypt corn referred both to barley and wheat.
c) Origins of corn
The most ancient type of wheat was einkorn wheat (Triticum monococcum), which started life as a wild wheat in northwestern Turkey. This wheat became useful as a food because the chaff and grain could easily be separated. Einkorn wheat has only one grain per ear and 7 chromosomes, but is still cultivated on poor soils. After wheat was cultivated, emmer wheat (Triticum diccoccum), from Armenia and northeastern Turkey, was found to produce higher yields than einkorn, if cultivated on favourable soils. It was the emmer variety which was grown in Mesopotamia then introduced into Egypt. Unlike einkorn, cultivated emmer is double grained and has 14 chromosomes.
Emmer wheat was grown in Egypt from pre-dynastic times until common wheat (Triticum aestivum) was introduced after the Persian invasion. Common wheat originated on the Russian steppes and unlike emmer, strains of common wheat can be grown as hard wheat.
Soft wheat flour is smooth and powdery in texture and has a high starch / gluten (or flour protein) ratio, hence will only absorb a small quantity of water. Hard wheat flour has a coarser texture and a lower starch / gluten ratio so will absorb a larger quantity of water than soft wheat flour. Hard wheat flour is more suitable for breadmaking.
The type of barley grown in ancient Egypt was six rowed barley (Hordeum vulgare) and originated as a wild cereal in the mountainous districts of Ethiopia. Six rowed barley is still grown around the Mediterranean and now also in North America. However in Britain and western Europe, most of the barley grown is two rowed (Hordeum distichum).
Wild millet and wild sorghum (Sorghum vulgare, also referred to as Kaffir corn or durra) were indigenous to Egypt.
a) Irrigation
Due to the lack of rainfall in Egypt, an irrigation system was necessary in order to cultivate cereals.
Virtually all the irrigation water came from the annual inundation of the Nile, which usually began either at the end of May or the beginning of June and reached its peak during August.
King Menes, who lived around 3100 B.C.,constructed a large masonry dam in the Fayum region to increase the water supply for irrigation. A thousand years later a canal was built (12 miles long) to link the Nile to Lake Moeris, so the flood water could be diverted and stored until the next inundation. As well as these two large scale schemes numerous smaller canals, dishes and embankments were built to increase the amount of arable land.
In August the canals were opened to receive the flood water from the Nile, the canals furthest from the river being inundated first. When the flood water receded the canals were closed again and the water was trapped in the fields by the embankments.
b) Ploughing and sowing
When the water receded from the fields, the land was ploughed by a team of two oxen. The plough used was mostly made of wood but had a metal point (either of iron or bronze) to till the soil. The plough had no wheels so was dragged across the land. It was operated by one man for light ploughing but two men were used for heavy ploughing. One man guided and drove the animals and the other man steered and added force to the handles of the plough. Often the soil in the delta region did not need ploughing prior to sowing. Instead a hoe was used to break up the soil.
Sometimes after tilling the soil, pigs were used to clear the fields of roots and weeds before sowing.
In primitive times and in the delta region the seeds were sown by being hand scattered then trodden in by sheep or goats but in the rest of Egypt a funnel attached to a plough was used to sow the seed.
c) Harvesting
The wheat was harvested five months after sowing and the barley was harvested four months after sowing.
The wheat was cut with a serrated sickle, just below the ear, then transported to the threshing area in wicker baskets strapped to donkeys. Gatherers followed, collecting fallen ears in hand baskets. After the corn was harvested the straw was gathered and used not only for fodder and animal bedding but also for fuel and even brick making.
A normal harvest could produce about eleven times as much grain as was sown.
d) Threshing and winnowing
Threshing is the process whereby the grain is separated from the ears of corn by beating and winnowing is the removal of the chaff from the grain, usually by wind or air currents.
The threshing took place on a level circular floor and was carried out by animals. Cattle were most frequently used but sometimes donkeys or sheep did the threshing. The draught animals were bound with wood or rope attached to their horns or neck then goaded by a driver with a stick to ensure that they continued threshing. The floor was swept then some corn was spread over the floor. This corn was then pounded by animal's feet. More corn was then added, using large wooden forks, and the process of pounding then adding fresh corn continued until all the corn was threshed. The grain and chaff were then swept up, being ready for winnowing.
The corn was winnowed by winnowers who tossed the corn into the air, using wooden scoops. The chaff was blown away by the wind whilst the heavier grain fell to the ground. Sweepers were used to collect the corn and pack it into sacks.
1(iii) Storage and organization
a) Storage
After being collected into sacks the corn was taken to the granary for storage. Each village had its own granary. In the village granary the corn was either stored in sacks or in silos. The silos consisted of pits lined with coiled basketry. During the Old Kingdom the towns and the larger estates had brick built granaries. These granaries consisted of rows of domed roofed rooms in which to house the grain. These rooms had two openings; a top one in which the grain entered and a bottom door from which the grain was removed. The grain was carried up steps to the top opening.
b) Organization
The grand vizier, who was second only in importance to the Pharaoh, was normally in charge of agriculture and food. It was his job to ensure that there was sufficient corn to feed the population and to decide if the surplus would be exported. Only the government was permitted to sell the corn outside Egypt. The exported corn was either bought off the large landowners or collected as tax.
To help the vizier control the corn supply there was a large civil service under him. These included assessors, who tried to predict the size of the harvest by measuring fields and examining the corn and monitors, who were scribes and tellers whose job it was to measure the corn harvest in each village. When the corn was being sacked after winnowing there was a scribe who recorded the number of sacks sent to the granary and another scribe at the granary who kept a record of all sacks arriving and leaving the granary. Each sack of corn contained a fixed quantity of grain and was measured using wooden markers.
These records were used by the civil service to assess the amount of tax due as well as calculating the amount of available corn in the country.
Generally the land rent was paid in grain the rate being 3« bushels per acre.
a) Stages of development in processing
Unlike fruit, grains cannot be digested if eaten raw so all grains need some form of processing before they can be used as a food.
The simplest form of processing is the application of dry heat to form popped grain. The next stage was to grind the cereal to make a flour, then add water before boiling to produce a porridge or gruel. This was more easily digested than popped grain. A more sophisticated process was to add fat to the flour / water mixture (or dough) before boiling to produce dumplings.
More complicated processing followed the advent of the baking oven which occurred in Turkey during the chalcolithic period. In primitive baking the flour was mixed with water then baked to produce unleavened bread which was similar in texture to cream crackers. The next stage was when yeast were added to the dough, then allowing the dough to sour before being baked to make bread.
The most complicated process was the production of beer in which the cereal was allowed to sprout before being dried. The dried, sprouted cereal was then ground before adding water and yeast. The liquid was then left to ferment to produce beer.
All these processes were practised in ancient Egypt from pre-dynastic times.
b) Flour production
The corn was ground into flour using querns, usually by women in the home. A quern basically consisted of two stones, the bottom one was slightly hollowed and the top stone was a small boulder. The corn was placed in the hollow of the bottom stone, then pulverized with the boulder until all the corn was ground into flour. The flour was then sieved through a rushwork sieve to separate the flour from the remnants of crushed grain. However these sieves were not very effective so when higher quality flour was needed, the grain was soaked then dried in the sun on mats before being milled. This softened the grain resulting in a finer ground flour containing a smaller amount of crushed grain.
The flour used was wholemeal as the ancient Egyptians did not separate the endosperm from the husk and germ. It is probable that they felt no inclination to attempt seriously, such a wasteful process.
c) Breadmaking
In richer households the bread was made entirely from emmer wheat whilst poorer people used cheaper barley or sorghum more frequently than wheat. To make the dough the flour was mixed with water in a large shallow earthenware bowl and a small amount of salt was added. When making dough the gluten absorbs twice its weight in water and the starch takes up about a third of its weight. The dough was kneaded to improve the functional properties of the gluten thus making the dough more elastic. According to Herodotus, the dough was sometimes kneaded by feet in a wooden bowl.
After kneading the dough was leavened or soured by adding some of the beer dregs, containing yeast, from the brewery. The dough was then left overnight to sour before being baked. During souring natural chemicals in the dough (known as diastatic enzymes) break down the starch to form various sugars, the most important being maltose, dextrose and melibiose. These sugars are then broken up by the yeast during the fermentation process to produce gas (carbon dioxide), acid and alcohol.
It is the gas produced during souring that causes the aeration of the loaf. In a strong flour there is sufficient gluten to support the aerated crumb structure but in a weak flour, such as emmer, there is insufficient gluten. When the bread was baked in ancient Egypt, the loaf rose as the gas expanded but then collapsed in the oven before the baking was completed, due to lack of gluten to support the foamed crumb structure. The result was similar to nan or pitta bread. The alcohol produced during fermentation evaporated during baking.
Wooden oven sticks were used to transfer the bread in and out of the clay ovens used for baking.
d) Types of bread and cakes
The ancient Egyptian cooks and bakers made bread and cakes of many different shapes and sizes but the most popular or standard loaf was a flat circular one similar to nan bread, but with a hole or depression just off centre, caused by the oven sticks.
Flat, circular, unleavened bread was also made by cooking in a fire or on the outside of a clay oven.
More ornate loaves ranged from being square, triangular or other geometrical shapes or even shaped to resemble animals or people. Besides being shaped bread was also moulded in clay pots. Conical shaped loaves were moulded in clay moulds. These clay moulds were made from Nile silt and were for single use, being broken to release the bread. More robust clay pots were made for repeated use. These pots were tempered or made non-stick by greasing, heating to baking temperature, cooled, greased again; the process of heating, cooling and greasing then being repeated several times. This produced a smooth surface, on the inside of the pot and reduced the amount of molecular transfer between the pot and the bread during baking. The fewer the number of molecules which move between the bread and the pot the easier it is to remove the loaf without it disintegrating or sticking to the mould.
Softer bread was made using lidded pots which prevent the steam from escaping.
Seeds, including caraway and cumin, were often added to bread. Dough was enriched with milk, eggs or fat to make milk bread, cakes or pastry. Fruit loafs were also made with the most popular fruit used being dates. No sugar cane or beet was grown in ancient Egypt and they did not possess the technology to refine sugar. Hence to sweeten cakes or pastries, dates or honey were used. Pastry cooks were referred to as 'workers in dates' as this fruit was the main sweetener used.
e) Malting
Malting, which means prolonged soaking in water to improve taste, digestibility and nutritional value, originated in Mesopotamia between 2000 and 3000 B.C. It is believed that malting was discovered when seeds were left soaking in water for a few days, by accident. Seeds and hull protected fruits were the first foods treated in this manner. Sometimes malted product were then dried to produce a preserved food. During malting of seeds, they are often left immersed in water until they begin to sprout. Chinese bean sprouts are produced by a malting process.
When malting barley seeds they are soaked in water. After a while the seeds swell by absorbing the water then they begin to sprout. During malting chemical changes occur in the barley seeds, when enzymes (mainly diastase) are released. These enzymes convert the starch into sugar in a similar process as when dough is soured. The main sugar produced during the malting of barley is maltose. Also the vitamin B content of the barley increases considerably during malting.
Normally the sprouting barley seeds are dried. This dried product is called malt. Drying preserves the diastase enzymes.
The ancient Egyptians malted both barley and emmer wheat. The wetted whole ears of grain were buried in earth until they sprouted. The sprouting cereals were then dried to produce malt. The malt was crushed in mortars before being pressed into malt cakes. They baked the malt cakes until they were dark brown on the outside. Only the outside of the cake was roasted leaving the inside relatively uncooked, hence preserving the diastase enzymes in the uncooked malt.
f) Brewing
In ancient Egypt 40% of the total cereal production was used for brewing. They made beer from both malt cakes and cakes made from unmalted grain.
The loaves were put into a large clay vessel and enough water was added to soak the cakes. This mix was left standing for a day then thumbed and stirred with a wooden pestle until a thick porridge was made. This process is called meshing. The purpose of meshing is to facilitate the process whereby the diastase enzymes can convert the remaining starch into sugar. As there was no equipment to measure when the meshing was complete the ancient Egyptians had to rely on the expertise of the brewer, who could tell by examining and tasting the porridge (or mesh). However the brewers often use to ferment the beer before the conversion of starch into sugar was completed, so the diastase enzymes were still active during the beginning of the fermentation.
The mesh was then strained through a sieve, into the fermenting vessel whilst being kneaded by hand and sprayed with water. The purpose of sieving is to separate the grain husks from the brown liquid containing the malt sugars. The brown liquid is called the wort. In ancient Egypt a large open earthen vat was used to ferment the wort into beer.
Fermentation is a naturally occurring process if fruit juice or a honey and water mixture are allowed to stand as both fruit skins or peels and honey are normally heavily contaminated with yeast spores. These yeasts convert the sugars present in the fruit juice or honey into alcohol. Hence the first alcoholic drinks were made from fruit juices and honey. In primitive societies the water was generally contaminated, so alcoholic drinks were safer to drink, due to the antiseptic properties of the alcohol.
The fermentation of barley is thought to have started by a lucky accident, when barley or wheat porridge was left standing in a cracked vessel which contained yeast. In ancient Egypt the dregs from a previous fermented batch was added to the wort to start the fermentation. The fermentation took between two and four days. It is reckoned that the ancient Egyptians attempted to use a pure strain of yeast by carefully selecting the beers from which the dregs were removed to be used as starters. They had some success as strains of the yeast Sacchromyces winlocki predominate in the bread and beer samples taken from around 1500 B.C. These samples were from funeral offerings buried in tombs.
g) Types of beer
Strictly speaking beer is an alcoholic drink made by fermenting barley and adding hops for taste, whilst ale means malt liquor brewed without hops. However these days beer and ale are used synonymously. Lager is bottom fermented beer which is cold fermented.
Hops was neither grown in nor imported into ancient Egypt so other fruit or vegetable products were used to flavour the beer. For a bitter beer lupine beans were used whilst for a sweeter beer crushed dates were added to the wort. Mandrake, which has a taste akin to leeks, was another popular flavouring. Salt was also used as a flavour enhancer.
Cheap Egyptian beer was not filtered but simply poured from the fermenting vessel into porcelain jars and jugs. For a more expensive product the beer was left to settle so that the heavy sediment sank to the bottom of the vessel, whilst the lighter pectin haze floated to the top. The beer was carefully decanted into a second clay vessel, where further fermentation took place to produce a maturer, stronger beer. This beer was artificially clarified by being poured through fuller's earth (a type of absorbent clay) wrapped in cloth. The mature beer had a much higher alcohol content than modern beer.
However the best and most expensive beers drunk in ancient Egypt were imports from Syria and Babylon as Babylon was more advanced than Egypt, in the skills of beer making. Unlike the ancient Egyptians, the Babylonians filtered the wort. The Babylonians also used lactic acid bacteria to impart a sour taste to the beer and improve its keeping quality. The lactic acid bacteria would have been obtained by adding small quantities of soured milk to the wort.
Unlike modern beer, both Babylonian and Egyptian beer was flat as open vessels were used for the fermentation and no attempt was made to retain the carbon dioxide released during fermentation.
1(v) Problems associated with cereals
a) Water supply
Cereals require water for growth. As the rainfall was sparse and sporadic in Egypt, the Egyptians had to rely on the inundation of the Nile to provide an adequate water supply. The main source of the Nile is Lake Victoria in southern Africa and the amount of rainfall in the wet season there and in the central African highlands determine the extent of the inundation in Egypt.
As the Egyptians were able to store both grain and water, a failure in inundation in one year would not cause a famine. The bible claimed that with foresight and planning Egypt could survive seven years of poor inundations. Considering that the lakes in the Fayum and delta could easily hold one year's water supply and possibly two and the granaries could probably hold up to about five years corn supply, with careful rationing, this claim is realistic.
To help to plan and control the grain reserves, the Egyptians from the Old Kingdom onwards used to use poles to measure the water level in the Nile and if this level started to fall they would be more prudent in controlling the amount of grain held. For instance when the river level dropped for a couple of years, they would hold onto any grain surplus rather than export it.
However lack of flood water for a decade or more could create severe hardship and famine which might bring about a political crisis. It is believed that the political collapse of the First Intermediate Period arose from a prolonged drought.
b) Crop diseases
All cereals are prone to fungal diseases, the most common ones being smut and rust.
Smut is a disease which attacks the grains of wheat and there are two main types; bunt (caused by the Tilletia genus of fungi) and loose smut (caused by the Ustilago genus of fungi). Barley is also susceptible to loose smut.
In bunt, which is also known as stinking smut, the fungus gains entry to the plant at the seedling stage. The ovaries are invaded, causing the infected grains to swell. In infected grains the endosperm (or starchy part of the grain which provides the food supply for the germinating seed) is replaced by black fungal spores with a fishy smell.
Loose smut is a harder disease to detect as the grains produced look normal and can be milled in a normal manner. However the plants grown from infected seeds fail to produce grain.
Unlike smut, rust disease (caused by the Puccinia genus of fungi) attacks the stem and leaves of the cereal. The plants first lose their green colour and turn yellow. This is followed by reddish, yellow spots developing on the leaves (hence the name rust). The plant is unable to produce much sugar in the leaves, so cannot convert the excess sugar into starch for storage in the grains. Thus the grains are small and shrivelled. The effect of rust is to reduce the quantity and quality of grain, hence the volume of flour produced.
c) Insect infestations
Insects attacking the crops growing in the field are different to those which attack the stored corn in the granaries. Growing cereals can be damaged by locusts, termites, weevils and beetles whilst stored grain is more prone to attack by mites and beetles.
In ancient Egypt swarms of locusts sometimes swept in from the south and devoured all green parts of plants, including cereals. The ancient Egyptians tried to catch these locusts and even ate the ones they caught, but as the locusts were so numerous, they were unable to stop them devastating crops.
During periods of drought or when there were severe fungal infections, termites would attack the cereals. They would dig into the root collar and tunnel up into the stem, thus killing the plant.
Barley and wheat are also prone to attack by Nematocerus weevils and the black wheat beetle. The adults of both these insects eat the leaves, whilst the black wheat beetle also eats the root of the cereal.
The ancient Egyptians tried to deter insects from their granaries with wood ash, which contains natural insecticidal chemicals. The insects which were most likely to attack the granaries were mites and beetles. In the Fayum region the granary pits were sometimes burnt if they were heavily infested with insects.
Mites (being the larval stage) from the Indian Meal Moth were probably the insects which most frequently ate the stored grains.
d) Rodents
Both rats and mice were found in ancient Egypt. Although present in the fields, they were more a nuisance than a serious threat to the growing cereals. However the situation in the granaries was different as these pests could contaminate large quantities of stored grain.
Rat traps, made of pottery, from the Middle Kingdom have been found but the main means of protecting the granaries from rodents was by employing cats.
e) Physical contamination
The main physical contaminant in ancient Egypt was sand. Wind swept sand could easily contaminate stored food as well as food which was being processed or cooked. Once sand was incorporated into solid food it was difficult to remove. The bread in ancient Egypt was usually contaminated with sand, to some extent, and this is believed to have accounted for the poor condition of teeth in ancient Egypt, which were worn down rather than decayed.
For a civilization to develop there needs to be an adequate food supply which can be obtained without taking up most of the time of the entire population. Like with the other early civilizations, this was achieved in Egypt by growing cereals. The cereals provided not only adequate food for the peasants who grew them, but was also able to feed the rest of the population, including priests, builders, craftsmen, traders, administrators and the military. If these people had not been released from the burden of growing their own food, there could not have been a civilization in ancient Egypt.
The success of the ancient Egyptian civilization over three millennia was due in part to the fertility of the Nile valley, where soil was continually replenished during the inundation. However the civilization would not achieved such longevity without the skilful planning, organization and control of food resources.
Very few of the techniques for growing or processing cereals were developed in Egypt as most of these skills were imported from Mesopotamia. However the ancient Egyptians were very adept at utilizing these techniques and passing the necessary skills on, along numerous generations.
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