The Role Of Winemaking In Ancient Egypt

Winemaking in Ancient Egypt

In contrast to modern day Egypt, ancient Egypt was very famous for making very fine wine. The wine industry started as early as the 3rd millennium B.C., but had stopped after the Islamic conquest of Egypt. Although it 's not clear where the wine industry has started, some scholars believe that it may have started in Egypt during the time of antiquity. William is one of those scholars, who believes that wine making started in Ancient Egypt. However, others believe that the wine industry started elsewhere. stuart fleming mentioned in his book, The Origins and Ancient History of Wine, that the earliest source of making wine was discovered in Iran, and it dates back to 3500 B.C. The first evidence of winemaking in Egypt was the finding of many wine jars in the tombs of many nobles

Wine has played a very important role in ancient Egypt in many ways, it had ritualistic, medicinal, and nutritious purposes. It was viewed as food because of its nutritious substance, and was utilized as a medicine mixed with liquid medicines. Wine in ancient Egypt was a glorified product that was only consumed by the upper class people (another example being meat). Furthermore, wine had religious purposes and it was believed to have had divine qualities. Plutarch, the Greek historian, mentioned that Ancient Egyptians believed wine was “The blood of those who had once battled against the gods, and from whom, when they had fallen and had become commingled with the earth, they believed vines to have sprung.” ( El Dorry). In this paper, we will discuss the main purposes of wine in ancient Egypt along with discussing the role of the wine in the everyday life of ancient Egyptians. Finally, we will discuss our experimental