Ancient Egyptians love to eat pork

Ancient Egyptians, unlike Muslims, preferred pork. Pathologist Fabrizio Bruschi of the University of Pisa, Italy, and his colleagues have discovered the oldest case of pig-associated glutinous disease, in a late Ptolemaic mummy (1-2 century BC). original).

Cassava root originates from uncooked pork caused by tapeworm in Taenia solium pork.

A delicate wooden coffin

The mummy called "mummia di Narni" is located in a town in central Italy, belonging to a 20-year-old young woman. As a high-class lady, she was in a beautiful decorated wooden coffin.

"However, disrespectful hands have removed the ribbon wrapped around her," said Egyptologist Edda Bresciani.

When removing the stomach, researchers found part of the lesion on the abdominal wall."It was a 6x4 mm wide wound, with a lot of protrusions. It was a characteristic sign of tapeworm larva Taenia solium," Bruschi said.

It is not common in the industrialized world, but it still affects about 50 million people globally. Disease areas include Central and South America, sub-Saharan Africa, India and East Asia.

The mummy analysis confirmed that pigs were raised in Egypt. In fact, archaeologists also found pig bones, suggesting that pigs are part of an ancient Egyptian diet.

"In ancient Egyptian history, pigs were associated with Set / Seth god, siblings of Osiris. During the worship of Osiris, pork was not allowed to eat. At the time of worshiping Seth god , pork is loved again, " said Professor Louis Grivetti at the University of California.

According to Grivetti, author of Food: The Gift of Osiris, this means that pork is eaten in the 19th dynasty when the kings named Seti (relatives of Set / Seth) and Rameses reign.

MT (according to Discovery)