Temple offering of wine or oil, flowers, and small cakes or loaves of bread. Grapes were grown for wine which was fermented in clay pots then sealed with details of the vineyard, year of pressing and type of wine. Wine was also made from pomegranates, dates, figs and the Egyptian plum (Cordia myxa). Palm wine was used in embalming for rinsing out the abdominal cavity and washing the extracted organs. Bread was a staple food and probably eaten with all meals. Cereals grown in Ancient Egypt were emmer wheat (Triticum dicoccum) and barley (Hordeum vulgare). Egyptian skulls show signs of severe dental attrition which is almost certainly due to contamination of cereals, flour and consequently bread, by fragments of sand and by grit which may have been introduced during the milling process to act as a cutting agent. Attrition wore down teeth to such an extent that the dental pulp became exposed and infected. This resulted in abscesses and the formation of cysts in the jaw. From a wall relief at the temple at Kom Ombo in Southern Upper Egypt. This temple mostly dates from the Ptolemaic Period although New Kingdom (1570-1070 BCE) remains have been found on the site.
Photograph taken in 1989.
