An Analysis of Funerary Food Offerings and Imagery in Theban Tombs from New Kingdom, Egypt

Summary

Food played an important role in ancient Egyptian funerary practices, but there has not been an examination of the types of food offered. I examined food offerings and their corresponding imagery in Theban tombs from New Kingdom, Egypt (1550- 1070 BCE) in order to analyze how food in funerary rituals changed over time. Through museum records, excavation reports, and examinations of artifacts in the British Museum, the Petrie Museum and the Museo Egizio in Turin, I determined the most common food types offered and depicted in imagery in the New Kingdom dynasties. There was more stylistic variation in physical bread molds than in the depiction of bread. Also, the overall amount of food left in tombs and the amount of food depicted in imagery declined during the late New Kingdom. From the stylistic differences between physical bread offerings and their depictions, I conclude that food production in ancient Egypt was open to the general population which allowed for personalized expression as opposed to the limited and controlled medium of illustration. I also argue that there was a shift away from the practice of offering an abundance of food towards simplistic burial customs in response to economic hardship and stylistic preferences.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 13191