Choice Cuts: Meat Production in Ancient Egypt

by Salima Ikram

Choise Meat Production in Ancient Egypt is a book about all aspects of meat processing in ancient Egypt. The book lists and examines the different types of meat consumed by the poultry, fish, and mammal, and their immediate by-products, such as blood and fat. The author discusses how each type of animal was slaughtered and processed for either immediate consumption or stored for later use, using pictorial, artefactual, textual, woodarchaeological, ethnographic and experimental evidence. Slaughter, jointing, and general processing locations are discussed, as well as storage locations, vessels used for storage, and transportation of animals as well as processed meat products. The book concludes with an attempt to determine how much meat was consumed in ancient Egypt, by whom, and what type. The appendices include lists of scenes showing meat processing as well as pig farming. The book has grown out of Dr. Salime Ikram's dissertation at Cambridge University. She now teaches Egyptology at the American University in Cairo, and works on excavations in Egypt and Turkey. Her specialities are daily life (especially food production) and mummification in ancient Egypt, as well as focus on faunal analysis.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

From her website at http://www.salimaikram.com/

Egypt Archaeologist, Author and Professor

Salima Ikram is a leading expert on animal mummies. As founder and co-director of the Animal Mummy project at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, she has emerged as one of the leading scholars in Egyptian funerary archaeology. Combining an interest in and understanding of the past with a passion of preserving it for the future, she has brought the little known world of animal mummies to light. Her series of books include a line of children's books and three authoritative works - "Divine Creatures," "The Mummy in Ancient Egypt," and "Death and Burial in Ancient Egypt." Her TV credits include "Da Vinci Code: Decoded" (Channel 4 UK), "Tomb Raiders: Robbing the Dead" (History Channel) and "The Real Scorpion King" (History Channel).

Dr. Salima Ikram is a professor of Egyptology at The American University in Cairo, a grantee of the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration, and an international guest speaker. Highlights of her professional career include a visiting scholar at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC), a consultant Egyptologist at Giza, Saqqara, Abu Sir, Valley of the Kings, and Co-Director of the North Kharga Oasis Survey.