Beer in Ancient Egypt
Beer production was of great importance in ancient Egypt, where it ranked second only to Nile water in popular consumption. Grape wine was scarce, while date wine was more common. The first reliable records date back to 3100 BCE and tell of the hostess Azag-Bau, who prepared and sold a grain-based beer in her cellar. This beer was called henqet in the most ancient Egyptian language. It likely developed concurrently with the Sumerian se-bar-bi-sag, though there is insufficient documentation to determine which came first.
The Egyptians attributed the invention of beer to the god Ra, who had given it as a splendid gift to humanity. Sacred texts from the temple of Uruk suggest that at least four types of beer were produced, with offerings of 18 golden jars of beer annually made to the god Anu. However, we have definitive knowledge of only three types: zythum, a light beer; curmy, which was likely darker; and sà, a high-concentration beer reserved exclusively for the Pharaoh and religious ceremonies.
The brewing process was similar to that of the Sumerians, except for malt production, which was discovered and implemented later, likely to emulate the refined brewing techniques of the prestigious Babylonian beer. Flavors were often enhanced with date honey and cinnamon, although sage and rosemary were also used.
Beer was present throughout the life cycle of ancient Egyptians, from birth to death. Infants were weaned with a mixture of zythum, water, honey, and barley flour. As children grew older, they were introduced to moderate beer consumption through an initiation ceremony that included the gift of a small amphora, representing their maximum daily beer allowance. This amphora often accompanied them after death, placed in their sarcophagi—though only for those entitled to aspire to immortality.
The mummification process, which lasted months, was preceded by a ritual washing with beer, symbolizing purification due to the sacred and divine origin of the beverage. According to the Book of the Dead, only Pharaohs, dignitaries, priests, and the most important figures of the kingdom were entitled to this treatment, which preserved the body and ensured the soul’s immortality. These select individuals, by divine decree, were believed to possess a soul that joined the afterlife in the pleasant company of numerous deities. Only Pharaohs, upon their death, became deities themselves, occupying a specific place within the complex divine order. The common people, unfortunately, were not believed to have souls, despite internal and external beer ablutions in life and death.
In texts from the Old Kingdom preserved in the pyramids of Saqqara, the hieroglyphs for zythum and curmy are consistently listed among the provisions necessary for the deceased's journey to the afterlife. During the long and exhausting funeral ceremonies, attendees honored the deceased with abundant libations of beer. This is evident from the Prisse Papyrus found in the necropolis of Abydos, which advises: “...do not let grief consume you to the point of numbness, but find solace in drinking zythum and curmy...” (Egyptian Museum of Turin).
Priests concluded funeral rites by drinking sà while chanting funeral laments that roughly translated to: “...it is sorrowful to board the boat of Ra without hope of finding zythum and curmy in abundance as your soul desires...” (ibid.).
Ramses III (1300 BCE) boasted of having donated 463,000 jars of beer throughout his lifetime to the powerful goddess Ishtar, deity of fertility, love, and protector of sailors and armies, as recounted in her hymn: “...morning star, queen of the sea, ruler of the earth, patroness of sailors, guide of armies...” Ishtar was identified with the planet Venus, the first and brightest star to appear in the night sky.
In his honor, the temple of Medinet-Habu was built, where, with meticulous precision, the accounting tablets recorded the food supplies received and the daily consumption of beverages: as many as 144 jars of beer and a few of wine and date wine. This demonstrates, if proof were still needed, not only the sacredness of this beverage but also its significant consumption compared to others. Beer was certainly popular among the people, but they could not consume it freely as they wished. This is evident from a peasant song tinged with regret:
"...Thresh the straw from the barley, for the lords who want zythum..." (ibid.),
while a sweet love song celebrates a beloved with the line:
"...When I kiss your parted lips, I am happy even without zythum..." (ibid.).
In the records of the library of Thutmose III (1480 BCE), it is written that the god Osiris, nocturnal deity and patron of the realm of the dead, received 1,200 jars of beer twice a year from Pharaoh Sotis I. This beer was used for sacred libations and distributed to the populace during religious festivals. The records also recount the story of Zhutu, a general under Thutmose III, who, unable to conquer the fortress of Yoppo after a grueling siege, cleverly intoxicated the Phoenician garrison by leaving a large quantity of beer jars outside the walls, successfully taking the fortress.
Amenhotep IV, son of Amenhotep III, ascended to the throne in 1362 BCE following the rare natural death of his father. A man of great intellectual openness, he quickly realized that true power had long been concentrated in the hands of the powerful priestly class. Thus, he resolved that it was not he who ruled Egypt but the High Priest, as had always been the case since the time of his ancestors. Intelligent yet ambitious, he decided that the governance of the state should now rest in his hands. To achieve this, he needed to dethrone the dominant deity, the god Amun, thereby dismantling the power of the priesthood.
He created a new supreme deity, Aten, represented by the solar disk, the source of light on earth, the origin of all life, and, as such, the heavenly father of the Pharaoh himself. He changed his name to Akhenaten, meaning "Son of Aten," and initiated a process of reform, destroying statues of the old god Amun throughout the kingdom, starting with the capital city of Thebes. In a display of moralistic asceticism, he prohibited the production of beer, closed all beer outlets, and ordered the destruction of all beer reserves, from royal cellars to those of the humblest innkeepers.
It is plausible that this was less a moral excess than a calculated effort to eliminate past religious formalities, in which beer played a central role. Thus, the god Aten did not drink beer, nor did Akhenaten. However, the priests remained numerous and powerful, and their influence over the people was still intact. Akhenaten refrained from sparking a civil war over religion, knowing he stood little chance of winning—especially after committing the grave political error of banning beer, which alienated the people.
Akhenaten abandoned Thebes to its apostate fate and built a new city: Amarna. Over three years of relentless slave labor, marked by the crack of the whip, he constructed a new capital in the desert, complete with grand structures, impregnable walls, and a single entry gate. In this city, he built his new palace and a splendid sanctuary dedicated to his spiritual father, Aten. Within the fortress city of Tell-el-Amarna, he lived monastically with his wife, Nefertiti, renowned as the most beautiful woman in ancient Egypt, as evidenced by her exquisite limestone busts, one of which, discovered in 1912, remains perfectly preserved and vividly colored in the Cairo Museum.
He was followed by his extensive court, dignitaries of the new priestly class over which he reigned supreme, and a large retinue of artisans, servants, and slaves. The city was entirely self-sufficient but, alas, not a single drop of beer was produced there—a beverage abhorred by the Pharaoh. However, outside the city walls, sellers of zythum and curmy thrived, making a fortune catering to citizens less ascetic than Akhenaten.
Modest, indeed, was the reign of this Pharaoh who, ruling over his city, deluded himself into believing he ruled Egypt, which remained firmly in the hands of the old priestly class. Upon his natural death—though there is room for some doubt— in 1345 BCE, the throne passed to his young nephew Tutankhaten. Akhenaten had arranged for his daughter, whom he married after Nefertiti's death, to ascend to the rank of queen and thus secure the legitimate title of Pharaoh for his favored nephew.
After only three years, Tutankhaten abandoned the fortress city, which within a few short years crumbled into dust along with Akhenaten's dreams of glory and a single god. He returned to Thebes, renounced the solar deity Aten, and re-embraced the old faith of the god Amun. To the great joy of the priests—who likely had more than a hand in these events—he changed his name to Tutankhamun. Today, few are unfamiliar with this Pharaoh's name, not for his brief reign, but for the immense wealth discovered in his tomb.
In 1922, Lord Carnarvon and the English archaeologist Howard Carter were excavating in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings when they stumbled upon a seal bearing the cartouche of an obscure Pharaoh, Tutankhamun, whose name did not appear in the long and detailed genealogies of the pharaonic dynasties. Patiently and with great hope of finding a new tomb, they began digging. Their persistence paid off when, after many failed attempts—since the true tomb was cleverly hidden behind a series of false doors, corridors, and chambers—they reached the antechamber of the actual burial chamber. The dream of every archaeologist had come true: the greatest archaeological discovery in history—the first and only intact and untouched pharaonic tomb.
In the antechamber, hundreds of objects lay scattered—each one a treasure on its own—from simple everyday tools to exquisite royal artifacts: a war chariot, intricately carved ivory and gold chairs and couches, fantastical animals sculpted from rare woods, and the most significant piece of all, the king's throne, featuring a depiction of the Pharaoh and his consort on the backrest. Carnarvon and Carter thought they had uncovered everything there was to find, but this was just the beginning. Continuing their excavation, they uncovered a second room even richer in artifacts, including many finely crafted and valuable items. An extraordinary treasure trove!
Yet the surprises were not over. Another sealed door led to a third room, where they encountered a wall of gold, which turned out to be the side of a massive gilded shrine. Inside this shrine was another, also gilded, and then another, and yet another—like a set of Russian nesting dolls. Inside the final shrine was a yellow quartzite sarcophagus, approximately three meters long and one and a half meters tall, featuring a wooden likeness of Tutankhamun on its lid.
Believing they had finally reached the Pharaoh’s mummy, they lifted the heavy marble lid to reveal the first coffin, wrapped in linen bands and adorned with the first of the gold masks encrusted with gems, representing the Pharaoh’s face. Inside this coffin was yet another, with a second funerary mask of solid gold, adorned with vibrant enamels and precious stones. Finally, within the third and last coffin—also made entirely of solid gold and weighing several hundred kilograms—they found the Pharaoh’s mummy. The third and final funerary mask, the most beautiful and famous, rested on his body.
Altogether, Tutankhamun’s body was encased in eight layers of coffins and shrines, returning to light after 3,270 years. As Carter famously said, the only noteworthy aspect of Tutankhamun’s life was “because he died and was buried” in a manner unmatched in opulence, treasure, and artistic grandeur by any other Pharaoh in Egypt’s history.
But now let us return to our simpler and more genuine topic: beer. Memorable indeed must have been the feasts during the reigns of the Pharaohs. Rivers of beer—not metaphorical but literal—flowed across the richly adorned royal banquet tables, with streams of zythum continuously replenished by large jars. Guests had only to dip their cups and drink, celebrating through the long days of countless religious festivals amidst mountains of food and torrents of beer, sacred songs, and dances that were somewhat less sacred. Exhausted from their gargantuan feasts and libations, the revelers would eventually succumb to sleep. After all, these were pharaonic banquets in every sense of the word!
In 1934, when a group of French archaeologists began excavating in the Tell-Hariri area, they had no idea they were about to uncover the ancient, legendary, and long-lost city of Mari. Founded in the 3rd millennium BCE, Mari reached its peak under the reign of its last king, Zimrilim, before being destroyed, razed, and burned by the armies of Hammurabi of Babylon in 1739 BCE. Buried for 4,000 years, it remained hidden until its rediscovery in 1934.
The royal palace, covering an astounding 30,000 square meters, contained 300 rooms. Two of these, evidently part of the king’s private quarters, were equipped with full sanitary facilities, including two bathtubs connected to large terracotta boilers for heating water. Other rooms served as classrooms, complete with rows of benches and desks, as well as styluses and terracotta tablets that looked as though they had just been used by scribes.
The greatest surprise, however, was the library—an immense rectangular room filled with tablets that had been preserved, rather than destroyed, by fire. Some tablets were still neatly arranged on shelves, while others had fallen to the floor, creating layers up to 2.5 meters high. The collection included letters, records, government decrees, political intrigues, accounts of journeys and battles, tales of gods and men, and glimpses of a daily life that was intense and eventful, all meticulously documented and codified. Among the more than 20,000 tablets—only a fraction of which have been translated—were records of beer production, sales, and donations, as well as inventories of barley for brewing and bread-making.
For beer enthusiasts, the most intriguing discovery was the Goddess of Overflowing Beer, a life-sized statue of a woman holding a jar marked with the seals of barley and beer. Ingeniously designed, the statue featured internal channels connected to a large external amphora, allowing zythum to flow from the jar. This clever system would have contributed to the rivers of beer known to run through Pharaohs’ banquets.
No discussion of Egypt would be complete without mentioning the last queen in its history, the most famous and controversial: Cleopatra. Her story—whether factual, romanticized, or depicted in film—is widely known. Feeling aged, undesirable, and fearful of being paraded through Rome as a war trophy, Cleopatra resolved to end her life by having her breast bitten by an asp.
Before taking this final, fateful step, she had her attendants pour two cups of sà, the strong beer of the gods. One she offered to herself, as a future goddess to arise from her imminent death, and the other to the goddess Anubis, who would accompany her on the long journey to the afterlife.
Egyptian mythology is populated with numerous deities in a complex interplay of personifications and transformations. Among them is the powerful Hathor, daughter of Ra, one of the foremost goddesses of the Egyptian pantheon. Hathor, a solar goddess, was represented as a sycamore tree and, in the depiction of the sun, as the cow Hanub, with the solar disk between her horns and udders that dispensed milk and beer. The Egyptian people often wore her effigy as a talisman against illness or as a good-luck charm, likely to ensure ample beer supplies throughout the year.
Beer also played a significant role in medicine and magical formulas. It was used as a balm against illnesses, particularly intestinal ailments, to heal wounds, and even as an antidote to scorpion stings. One story tells of the magician Dodi, who used repeated beer compresses to miraculously revive a bull and a goose, even reattaching their severed heads.
Beer was also commonly used as part of workers' wages. During major construction projects, in the mines, or even in simple agricultural tasks, free men received a measure of beer every three hours in addition to their salary. Slaves were given two measures per day, while prisoners of war—poor souls!—received one measure per day at best.
A vast collection of archaeological artifacts tells us about beer and its role in Egyptian customs. Hundreds of papyrus scrolls mention beer in the context of its habitual and daily consumption. Jars and trays are decorated with scenes of barley harvesting, beer production, and religious ceremonies. Bas-reliefs depict barley ears, beer jars, and spirits seated under the "beer tree," a figurative representation of the tree of life.
One famous artifact is a statuette preserved in the museum in Florence (Italy), depicting a kneeling woman kneading dough for beer. Another remarkable example is the mural inside the tomb of Ti, a court dignitary in charge of brewing beer for the Pharaoh’s court. The mural portrays, in a sequence of scenes, the various stages of beer production.
At the Louvre (France), a detailed relief model found in the tomb of Chancellor Nakhti-Assiout depicts an open-air brewery, showing figures engaged in the different phases of beer-making. Also at the Louvre, the tomb of Ounson and his wife Imenhetep, accountant of the sacred granaries of Amun in Thebes during the 18th Dynasty, has been entirely reconstructed. The painted banners along its walls illustrate all stages of barley planting and harvesting. In the harvest section, among the tall barley stalks and the figures of slaves at work, women carrying beer amphorae can be seen offering the refreshing drink.
Additionally, the Louvre houses a marble slab called the Table of Accounts or Menu of the Dead, which lists in detail the foods and drinks to be placed in a tomb for the deceased’s sustenance. Among the items listed are:
"Two measures of beer – one measure of beer with date honey – one measure of date wine – ..."
