In Narmer’s time most wealthy people owned land and had it farmed for them. Rich households produced most of their own food and other goods. Men grew wheat, barley or millet for grain; the women ground it in stone querns, made it into dough and baked it into bread, and brewed barley into weak beer. Flax plants were grown to be turned into fibre, then spun into thread, then woven on looms into cloth that could be sewn into clothes. Wool was spun and used for clothes too, and sometimes woven with flax, but knitting wasn’t known. Wealthy estates also produced their own leather for shoes, and kept bees for honey and wax candles.
Clothes
Clothes were simple—a short kilt for men, and a dress with straps for women. (Clothes became more complicated later.) Children often went naked, and workers in muddy fields were probably naked too—it’s easier to wash skin than clothes when you don’t have a washing machine. We don’t know if they wore underwear. A triangular loincloth found in one tomb may possibly have been a sort of basic pair of underpants.
In Narmer’s time most Egyptians went barefoot. Sandals were for special occasions, or for when the ground was very rough. The king—and possibly members of his family—had their own ‘sandal bearer’, who carried their sandals in case they wanted to put them on.
Food
Everyone mostly ate bread, fish and vegetables. Wealthy people might have a few more luxuries, but they only ate them occasionally. Vegetables were grown all year round—leeks, onions, garlic, chickpeas, broad beans, radishes, cabbages, endives, cucumbers, peas and raphanus, a wild radish tasting like turnip. Fruits grown included dates, date-like balanites, jujubes, carobs, figs, grapes and tiny dry sycamore figs. Other fruits like olives, apples, mulberries and pomegranates were brought to Egypt much later, and fruits like pears, peaches, almonds and cherries didn’t arrive till Roman times, about three thousand years after this book is set. The Egyptians grew other fruits and vegetables, too, that we can’t identify these days—probably they weren’t very tasty, and so were abandoned when better-tasting crops arrived. People also harvested wild lotus lilies from the River and ate the stems and roots, as well as the tender bases of papyrus. Spices and herbs like cumin, dill, coriander, cinnamon and rosemary were used to flavour food, and honey and syrups made from grape juice, dates, palm sap, figs and carobs were used for sweetening. Food was cooked over wood fires, and sometimes in small clay ovens.
The Egyptians kept cattle, goats and sheep for milk. Their milk was kept in egg-shaped earthenware jars, topped with grass to keep the insects out. It was drunk soon after milking, or kept as sour milk, a sort of yoghurt. In Narmer’s day milk was valuable, and would only have been drunk by the king’s family, or as part of a feast. Meat was a luxury too, and mostly came from wild animals.
In Narmer’s day most people probably ate from shared platters, or big plates or bowls, with everyone sitting on the floor, using bits of flatbread to scoop up the food. Most dishes for everyday use were made of pottery. You had to be rich to afford metal or alabaster or even carved wooden dishes. Plates and spoons were only used for cooking, not eating, as were jugs, ladles and strainers.
A couple of ancient Egyptian recipes
No recipes survive from Narmer’s Egypt. But the two that follow may be something like the foods that the first Pharaoh ate.
Date bread: Flatbreads—wheat or other grains and seeds mixed with water and baked into a thin, flat cake—have been around almost as long as humans have been eating grains, at least fourteen thousand years. The Egyptians probably ate the first risen bread; they were among the first beer drinkers too, so they had yeast, and they grew a sort of wheat that would rise when yeast was added to it. (Most flours don’t rise when yeast is added. The flour needs to contain gluten for bread to rise; the yeast produces carbondioxide gas and the gluten forms little bubbles around the gas. The more bubbles there are, the lighter your bread is.)
But that early risen bread still wasn’t much like the bread we know today. If you look at the skulls of middle-aged ancient Egyptians their teeth are worn right down, so the bread probably included lots of bran and bits of stalk and maybe even splinters of stone from when the wheat was ground.
In Narmer’s time flour was made from barley or emmer wheat or durah, a kind of millet. Women spent many hours a day grinding the grain, singing or chanting or gossiping to pass the time. The bread was baked in closed ovens. These were probably small, not big baker’s ovens that could cook many loaves of bread, which came later. These ovens were basically big hard mud or clay holes. Wood was shoved in and burnt to heat the oven, then the ashes were raked and the bread put in on top, to bake before the oven cooled. Flatbread could be baked on the hot sand, as it is in this book.
Bread was also flavoured with eggs, oil, sesame seed, herbs and fruit. To make date bread, you will need:
1/2 cup of fresh or dried dates, chopped
1 cup of water
1 teaspoon of fresh or dried yeast (Egyptian yeast first came from beer, which they brewed from dates, barley or palm sap. Bakers would either keep some of their last lot of bread dough to add to the new lot, or mix in yeasty beer.)
6 cups of wholemeal flour (or for a really authentic taste, 51/2 cups of flour and 1/2 cup of grit—but don’t try it, it’s very bad for your teeth!)
Boil the dates in the water till soft. Add more water if it boils away too quickly. Mash the dates, then when the date mash is warm—not hot—add the yeast. When the mixture is bubbling well, add the flour, and more water if needed. Knead it (pinch and roll it) well.
Flatten the mixture till it’s about as thick as your hand. Leave it till it doubles in size—which will take an hour or two in a warm place. (Most bread in Narmer’s day was flatbread, which cooks fast, not high loaves.) Place it on a greased tray in a very hot oven—as hot as you can make it—and bake it for about fifteen minutes, until it’s brown on top. Eat it hot or cold, or use it like the ancient Egyptians did, to scoop up other foods instead of using spoons or forks.
Baked beans with honey: to make these you will need:
3 cups of dried broad beans (other bean varieties wouldn’t be brought from South America for another four thousand years)
4 onions, chopped
10 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon of honey
1 tablespoon of ground cumin
water, to cover
Place all the ingredients in a pot. The mixture should be well covered with water. Put the lid on then bake in a very, very slow oven for at least six hours—the slower the better. If the beans are very old they may be very tough, and will need to be cooked for a whole day, or even left overnight and given more cooking the next day. But usually six hours is enough. Check every hour or so to see if you need to add more water, as the beans will absorb a lot. The beans are ready when they are soft enough to scoop up with a bit of bread, and all the liquid has been absorbed.
You can also use fresh (or even frozen) broad beans. They will only need cooking for an hour or two. They’re best with the loose skins rubbed off before cooking.
A VERY QUICK HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE EAST
9000 BCE Hunter–gatherers in the Middle East and north Africa are collecting wild grains; herders in what will be called the Zagros Mountains around the modern Iran–Iraq border begin to herd flocks of wild goats and sheep.
8000 BCE Barley and wheat varieties are domesticated—farmed—in the Nile, Tigris and Euphrates river valleys. The first towns grow up around the grain fields.
7000 BCE Flax is grown and spun to make linen cloth; pigs, sheep and goats are domesticated.
6500 BCE What may be the world’s first city Jericho, is built in the Jordan valley, with a population of about 2500 people. (Outside the Middle East, rice is farmed in the Yangtze River valley in China.)
6000 BCE Cattle are domesticated and farmers are irrigating their land along the Tigris and Euphrates. Copper is being mined and smelted at Catal Huyuk, in what will become Turkey. (Outside the Middle East, farming beg
ins in India and Pakistan.)
4500 BCE Potter’s wheels, sails and ploughs are invented along the Tigris and Euphrates; the small villages of this region are growing into cities.
4000 BCE Outside the Middle East, horses are domesticated in what is now the Ukraine.
3800 BCE In Mespotamia copper is mixed with arsenic, and later tin, to make the harder metal bronze.
3600 BCE Wheeled carts are being used along the Tigris and Euphrates.
3500 BCE Pictographs—symbols that represent words—are being used in both Egypt and Mesopotamia. The grasslands of north Africa are drying up, the Sahara Desert is growing larger. More nomads are moving to the fertile land along the Nile.
3100 BCE Narmer unites northern and southern Egypt into one country. The Sumerians develop cuneiform, a six-hundred sign alphabet, which they use as well as pictograms. (Outside the Middle East, cotton is being made into cloth in the Indus valley, modern-day India and Pakistan; copper is being smelted and potter’s wheels are being used in China; and potatoes are being grown and llamas domesticated in South America.)
2630 BCE Djoser becomes pharaoh; the first pyramid is built by the architect Imhotep.
2600–2500 BCE Rich burials take place in Ur.
2528 BCE The pharaoh Khufu (Cheops) is buried in the first and largest of the Great Pyramids at Giza.
2520 BCE Khafre (Cherphren) becomes pharaoh and builds the second of the Great Pyramids and the Sphinx.
2300–2100 BCE Sargon, King of Akkad, conquers Sumer and the rest of Mesopotamia; his successors will rule for one hundred and fifty years.
2134 BCE Central rule fails in Egypt. Local rulers struggle for power.
2112–2100 BCE King Ur-Nammu starts the Third Dynasty of Ur in Sumer; the first ziggurats—giant stepped temples—are built at Ur. Ur-Nammu’s code of laws is probably the first in the world.
2040 BCE Pharaoh Mentuhotep rules all Egypt.
1900 BCE Crop yields are so low in southern Mesopotamia that they can no longer support the big cities.
1792 BCE King Hammurabi unites all Mesopotamia: the beginning of the Babylonian Empire
1640 BCE Hyksos tribes from modern Syria and Palestine conquer Egypt.
1595 BCE Hittites from what is now Turkey conquer Babylon.
1550 BCE Ahmose becomes pharaoh, driving out the Hyksos.
1353 BCE Amenhotep IV takes the name Akhenaten and with his wife Nefertiti introduces monotheism to Egypt, worshipping the sun god Aten.
1333 BCE Nine-year-old Tutankhamen becomes pharaoh, and Egypt returns to the worship of Amun.
1270 BCE Rameses II is pharaoh, building massive monuments. It may be during his reign that the Israelites flee Egypt, settling in Canaan about 1200 BCE.
600s BCE Mesopotamia becomes part of the Persian Empire.
500 BCE Ur is abandoned, but people may have continued to bury their dead there.
334–323 BCE Alexander the Great of Macedon conquers Egypt, Persia, Samarkand and Babylon. After Alexander’s death his general Ptolemy seizes power in Egypt. Mesopotamia, too, stays under Greek rule for another two centuries.
51 BCE Cleopatra, a descendent of Ptolemy, becomes Queen of Egypt.
30 BCE Cleopatra dies; Egypt becomes a province of the Roman Empire.
600s CE (AD) Arab Muslims conquer Egypt and Mesopotamia.
1500s Egypt and Mesopotamia become part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire.
1798 The French briefly conquer Egypt, then it is ruled by the Albanian Muhammad Ali and his descendants.
1882 The British invade Egypt.
1917 British forces capture Baghdad during World War I.
1920 The country of Iraq is proclaimed under British mandate.
1922 Egypt is given independence but British troops remain.
1927 Huge oilfields are discovered in Iraq.
1932 Iraq achieves independence under Emir Faisal.
1952 Egypt achieves independence under Colonel Gamal Abdul Nasser.
1958 The Iraqi monarchy is overthrown; Iraq becomes a republic.
1990 Iraq invades Kuwait after long-standing disputes over oil and other matters.
1991 The United States and its allies invade Iraq; a ceasefire is ordered when Iraq withdraws from Kuwait.
2003 The United States, the United Kingdom, other European nations and Australia invade Iraq to prevent President Sudam Hussein from using his weapons of mass destruction against the world. No weapons of mass destruction are found.
I have used the most up-to-date information I can find in writing this book. But as new archaeological discoveries are made we may find that writing, legal codes, domestication of animals and many other things began even earlier than we currently think they did. A lot of material in recent books and on the Internet is already out of date, and no longer accurate.
Notes on this book could fill another whole volume. If you have any other questions please leave a message on my website:
www.jackiefrench.com
About the Author
Jackie French is a full-time writer who lives in rural New South Wales. Jackie writes fiction and non-fiction for children and adults, and has columns in the print media. Jackie is regarded as one of Australia’s most popular children’s authors. Her books for children include: Rain Stones, shortlisted for the Children’s Book Council Children’s Book of the Year Award for Younger Readers, 1991; Walking the Boundaries, a Notable Book in the CBC Awards, 1994; and Somewhere Around the Corner, an Honour Book in the CBC Awards, 1995. Hitler’s Daughter won the CBC Younger Readers Award in 2000 and a UK National Literacy Association WOW! Award in 2001. How to Guzzle Your Garden was also shortlisted for the 2000 CBC Eve Pownall Award for Information Books and in 2002 Jackie won the ACT Book of the Year Award for In the Blood. In 2003, Diary of a Wombat was named an Honour Book in the CBC Awards and winner of the 2002 Nielsen BookData/ Australian Booksellers Association Book of the Year—the only children’s picture book ever to have won such an award. More recently, in 2005 To the Moon and Back, which Jackie co-wrote with her husband, Bryan Sullivan, won the CBC Eve Pownall Award for Information Books and Tom Appleby, Convict Boy, My Dad the Dragon and Pete the Sheep were also named Notable Books. Jackie writes for all ages—from picture books to adult fiction—and across all genres—from humour and history to science fiction.
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Other Titles by Jackie French
Wacky Families Series
1. My Dog the Dinosaur • 2. My Mum the Pirate
3. My Dad the Dragon • 4. My Uncle Gus the Garden Gnome
5. My Uncle Wal the Werewolf • 6. My Gran the Gorilla
7. My Auntie Chook the Vampire Chicken
8. My Pa the Polar Bear
Phredde Series
1. A Phaery Named Phredde • 2. Phredde and a Frog Named Bruce
3. Phredde and the Zombie Librarian • 4. Phredde and the Temple of Gloom
5. Phredde and the Leopard-Skin Librarian • 6. Phredde and the Purple Pyramid
7. Phredde and the Vampire Footy Team • 8. Phredde and the Ghostly Underpants
Outlands Trilogy
In the Blood • Blood Moon • Flesh and Blood
Historical
Somewhere Around the Corner • Dancing with Ben Hall
Soldier on the Hill • Daughter of the Regiment
Hitler’s Daughter • Lady Dance • The White Ship
How the Finnegans Saved the Ship • Valley of Gold
Tom Appleby, Convict Boy • They Came on Viking Ships
Macbeth and Son • The Goat who Sailed the World
Fiction
Rain Stones • Walking the Boundaries
The Secret Beach • Summerland
Beyond the Boundaries • A Wombat Named Bosco
>
The Book of Unicorns • The Warrior – The Story of a Wombat
Tajore Arkle • Missing You, Love Sara • Dark Wind Blowing
Ride the Wild Wind: The Golden Pony and Other Stories
Non-fiction
Seasons of Content • How the Aliens from Alpha Centauri Invaded
My Maths Class and Turned Me into a Writer
How to Guzzle Your Garden • The Book of Challenges
Stamp, Stomp, Whomp • The Fascinating History of Your Lunch
Big Burps, Bare Bums and Other Bad-Mannered Blunders
To the Moon and Back • Rocket Your Child into Reading
The Secret World of Wombats
Picture Books
Diary of a Wombat • Pete the Sheep • Josephine Wants to Dance
Copyright
Angus&Robertson
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, Australia
First published in Australia in 2007
This edition published in 2010
by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
www.harpercollins.com.au
Copyright © Jackie French 2007
The right of Jackie French to be identified as the moral rights author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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