The Question of Fuel for Cooking in Ancient Egypt and Sudan

Abstract

Little is known about the actual cooking processes and in particular fuel-related activities in Egypt and Northern Sudan (Nubia) in antiquity, especially during the Bronze Age. Considering that wood was, in general, rare along the Nile valley and therefore an expensive raw material, animal dung was tested in 2018 by means of a series of experiments for its suitability as a fuel for cooking in ancient Northeast Africa. Different types of herbivore dung were tried using replicas of Egyptian and Nubian cooking pots from the Second Millennium BCE. The results suggest that especially donkey and horse, but also sheep, goat, and, cattle dung provide beneficial conditions for keeping good and durable cooking temperatures while preventing fast cooling on small scale fireplaces. This seems to be especially beneficial for dishes containing legumes and cereals, which require long cooking times.

Keywords

• cookery
• fuel
• bronze age
• egypt
• sudan