Author
Mennat-Allah El Dorry
is an Egyptologist specialized in archaeobotanical analysis. Much of her research has revolved around food and trying to reconstruct how people in the past cooked and ate. She is currently editing the proceedings of an international conference on food in Egypt and Sudan that she organized in 2018 in cooperation with the Institut français d’archéologie orientale and the Polish Centre for Mediterranean Archaeology. Instagram: eatlikeanegyptian
Articles by this author
Although abstinence from food was a cornerstone of monastic life, monasteries were thriving settlements that tell us much about the food available in early Christian Egypt
A glimpse into the food and foodways of the ancient Egyptians over their 3,000-year history
Why did the ancient Egyptians use onions during mummification? How would the victorious Egyptian king count the dead after a battle? We answer these and other fascinating questions in our trivia round-up.
Graffiti has always existed in Egypt in one form or another, and, thanks to the proliferation of this form of visual representation, the country itself has sometimes been referred to as ‘the classical land of graffiti’.
Although food is generally perishable, quite a bit of evidence has survived to show us what the ancient Egyptians ate. Not only do we have brightly coloured tombs and numerous texts, but also ancient examples of plant remains and food.
The antiquities trade is not a new one; in fact, it is an ancient business. A papyrus survives from the reign of Ramses IX (ca. 1126–1108 BCE) to tell us of a tomb robbery and the prosecution of the robbers involved. Why do people steal what is, in essence, already theirs?
Egypt is overflowing with museums, and each overflows with its own set of trivia. To fill you in, below are some of the most intriguing, yet little-known facts about Egypt’s museums.