Discover typical dishes of ancient Egypt

By measuring the carbon isotopes of Egyptian mummies living in 3,500 BC and 600, the French research group discovered the menu of ancient Egyptians .

Accordingly, experts discovered, eating a lot of meat is a recent phenomenon and the Egyptians in ancient culture tend to be more vegetarian.

Bread, fruit, vegetables such as eggplant, garlic are the favorite dishes that the ancient Egyptians. Meat and fish are the few foods that ancient Egyptians responded to.

People often eat a single type of bread, which is unleavened bread, onions and sometimes fish. They drink fermented drinks and rarely eat beef, except for holidays or by Pharaohs.

The food of the rich is much more diverse, they have about 15 different types of bread in their meals, served with popular vegetables such as lentils, lettuce, cucumbers, onions and radishes. . Meats from cattle, sheep, goats and pigs are also often present during meals.

Alexandra Touzeau, head of the research team at Lyon University, said: "After conducting 45 studies of mummies transferred to the Lyon Museum in the nineteenth century, we discovered some interesting points. about bones, teeth, as well as hair, collagen and protein sources in these specimens ".

To find out this secret, the team measured carbon isotopes 13 in bone, enamel, hair and compared with previous results. Hair absorbs a higher percentage of animal protein than bones and teeth.

Compared to the hair samples of the respective mummies found in the hair of modern European vegetarians, experts discovered many similarities. Therefore, the team confirmed that the ancient Egyptians were mostly vegetarian.

However, the team was also a bit surprised to find that: "Ancient Egyptian diets did not change much over time. Although in the Nile area, many believe that the Egyptians "Ancient people living along the Nile will consume fish in large quantities. But the truth is that fish do not appear too much in every daily meal."

Kate Spence - an archaeologist and expert on ancient Egypt shared: "There are many images in bas-reliefs showing the ancient Egyptians fishing but fish are not the favorite of they are a strange thing ".

The study was published in the Journal of Scientific Archeology.