Isotopic Palaeodiet Studies of Ancient Egyptian Fauna and Humans

A REVIEW OF ALEXANDRA H. THOMPSON, MICHAEL RICHARDS,

ANDREW SHORTLAND AND SONIA ZAKRZEWSKI’s

“ISOTOPIC PALAEODIET STUDIES OF ANCIENT EGYPTIAN FAUNA AND HUMANS“

Joey Schwegel

The Journal of Archaeological Science (March, 2005) presented the study conducted by Alexandra Thompson, Michael Richards, Andrew Shortland and Sonia Zakrewski titled “Isotopic palaeodiet studies of Ancient Egyptian fauna and humans”. The researchers noted in their introduction that “Egypt is one of the most intensively studied cultures in the world.” (Thompson 2006: 451). They then note that studies of everyday food production may have been overlooked until recently. They acknowledge that there is an abundant source of information of foods and diet that cover later periods. The researchers propose that using carbon isotope ratios they may be able to generate data which will indicate the source and type food consumed by the inhabitants of Egypt prior to the period where other sources of information are widely available. The time period covered in the research is quite broad; 5500 BC to 343 BC. It is possible that the reason they chose a time period of 5000 years was due to the difficulties they describe in their attempts to obtain suitable animal remains for their study.

The researchers present a review of previous studies that examined a later period of time (50 BC) then they studied. The previous studies reviewed, had focused on human remains found at several oases.

The researchers point out a major problem they had with attempting to conduct their study. The root of the problem is that the remains of the animals studied, may not be from the same geographical area or period of time, as the humans that were studied. In fact, the researchers could not find any “obvious” candidates among the animals that they measured for the protein they also found in the humans. The researchers are left to speculate that the human remains that they studied, may have obtained their protein from animals and ecosystems that the researchers did not sample. The researchers go on to say that the source of the protein might also have been from fresh water fish that had come from the Nile River. They report only being able to study the remains of one perch and this single fish did not provide any meaningful evidence.

At one point in the published study, the researchers explain that due to the shortage of animal samples, they actually used the remains of some animals for which they did not know their exact geographical origin, other than they had come from Egypt.

In the section titled Textual and Archaeological Evidence for Diet in Egypt, the researchers review what appears to be fairly well established and authoritative details