Blessing of curse the consumption of red wine and alcoholic drinks in ancient Egypt

Győry, Hedvig and Horváth, Balázs Zsigmond and Blázovics, Anna (2020) Blessing of curse the consumption of red wine and alcoholic drinks in ancient Egypt. In: Aegyptus et Pannonia VI. Health and Life in Ancient Egypt. Mummies in Focus Proceedings of the Conference held 27-29th August 2019, Budapest. Magyar-Egyiptomi Baráti Társaság, Ókori Egyiptomi Bizottság, Budapest, pp. 111-183. ISBN 9786150103617

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Abstract

Egyptians were classified by Herodotos to be the second healthies people in the world because of their environmental conditions. Looking to the geography of ancient Egypt we can conclude, however, that neither the desert/savannah nor the water sources were favorable for human life. And indeed, the average age in pharaonic Egypt is assumed to have been between 30-36 vears. Ancient Egyptians soon realised that instead of the contaminated water, they could drink beer and wine. They learnt from their northern neighbours how to cultivate grapes and produce wine, which they usually depicted with a red colour. During the millenia they also developed and drank various kinds of wine. The article investigates how they used wine, and what impact it had on their health conditions. Could the resveratrol, which the blue grapes and red wine contain in large amounts, protect their health? After vine cultivation in ancient Egypt, the article discusses the various wine-drinking habits in everyday life and during feast, when ancient Egyptians also experienced its intoxicating character. The next point is the discussion of the religious development of these habits, because ancient Egyptians attached theological ideas to wine consumption and overconsumoption, and even developed occasions when intoxication was reguired. These feasts were typically connected to fertility rites, especially to the vearly inundation of the Nile water. The Nile inundation was a joy because it brought abundance to the fields on the two banks of the river but was also feared because various diseases spread guickly at that time all over the land. This article then continues to discuss these diseases, one of the most important being the khayt, which existed throughout the yvear but intensified at flood time. The article identifies it as a widespreading liver disease-group. Why then did the regular consumption of wine not protect the ancient Egyptians? We attempt to answer on a biochemical basis focusing on the metabolism of some bioactive agents in red wine.

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