beer

The rich and famous people of ancient Egypt lived a decadent lifestyle with fine wine, sex, high fashion, and plenty of partying. How do they compare with their equivalents today - the modern western celebrity set?

The main differences might be regarding who were the richest people then, and who are the richest people now. In ancient Egypt the pharaoh was at the top of the ‘pyramid’ and his family, noble people who owned land, and the priests came after. Scribes, architects and doctors were well off, and skilled craftsmen also had many privileges.

Drunkenness, hangovers, and debauchery tend to come to mind when one thinks about alcohol and its effects. But could alcohol also have been a catalyst for human civilization?

According to archaeologist Patrick McGovern this may have been the case when early man decided to start farming. Why humans turned from hunting and gathering to agriculture could be the result of our ancestors’ simple urge for alcoholic beverages.

“Alcohol provided the initial motivation,” said McGovern, a biomolecular archaeologist at the University of Pennsylvania Museum. “Then it got going the engine of society.”

1: DIY Prehistoric Cooking

If Jacqui Wood’s ancient recipes for the perfect Christmas dinner have inspired you to turn your kitchen clock back, then there's more help at  hand in Prehistoric Cooking, Wood’s first book about old school cooking. In it, she traces the eating habits of our ancestors, starting with hunter-gatherers and going through to the Iron Age. Recipes are scattered throughout the book, based on archaeological findings and Wood's own experimental archaeology techniques.

One of the most unusual presentations on Egyptology that I’ve seen in awhile took place at the Egypt symposium in Toronto recently. Professor Emeritus Vincent Tobin, of St. Mary’s University, has been translating and analyzing Late Egyptian love poems, and finds that they reveal a rather risqué side to Egyptian life.

“The Egyptians were well aware of the more salacious aspects of love,” said Tobin. “For the Egyptians sexuality is part of human nature.”

He read a number of examples to the audience, which offer a unique insight into the sex lives of the ancient Egyptians:

I shall lie down in my house and pretend illness. Then my neighbours will come by to visit me and my beloved will come with them. She will send the physicians away. For she alone understands my illness. 

Just a little suggestive!