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Industry : Plant Products
Plant Products
The Egyptians were skillful in their use of plants and spices, and a wealth of plant remains have survived in their tombs and rubbish heaps. These have been studied by modern botanists from various countries, and they enable us to build up a picture of the ecology, the availability of local and imported timbers, trade routes, and domestic and burial customs. The living flora of Egypt was first studied by a Swedish scholar, Petter Forsskal, who died on a royal Danish expedition to Egypt and Yemen in AD 1763. Later, a Frenchman, Victor Loret, made a detailed study of botanical specimens from tombs. In the late nineteenth century, a German, Georg Schweinfurth, made a collection of agricultural and botanical objects that formed the nucleus of the Agricultural Museum he founded in Cairo; he also sent duplicates to the Botanical Museum in Berlin. With the discovery of the almost intact tomb of Tutankhamun at Thebes in 1922, a wealth of plant remains was recovered; these were subsequently kept at the Cairo Museum and some were identified by the Englishman Percy Newberry. A number of samples were also sent to the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew, England. There are other sources of information about plants and trees and their products in ancient Egypt, including wall scenes in tombs and temples, medical and other texts, mummified bodies and the plants associated with them, and the botanical texts. As yet no complete ancient Egyptian herbal has been found, although a few fragments of later papyri have survived. However, some information is provided in the work of Classical writers such as Dioscorides whose herbal, written in Greek in the first century AD, included some Egyptian plant names. .
FLORAL DECORATIONS AND
HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTSThe Egyptians were keen horticulturalists who grew plants and trees in their own gardens for personal pleasure and also tended them on a commercial scale to provide products for various industries. Floristry was well organized; it catered to the gods’ needs in the temple rituals and provided bouquets, garlands, and collars for a variety of religious and festive occasions. Floral decorations were also worn to banquets and parties and played a part in the burial ceremony. When the mummy stood upright at the door of the tomb to receive the final rites, the relatives placed beside it a bouquet, which was probably eventually put inside the coffin. In Tutankhamun’s burial archaeologists found several floral decorations inside the coffin. Plants also had many domestic uses: Furniture, household items such as baskets, mats, and brushes, and even herb pillows were made from a variety of plant fibers and products. Plants were also utilized to keep the house free from vermin and insects. The Egyptian diet was mainly vegetarian, and plants and vegetables were cultivated for food and cooking. Other uses include the manufacture and dyeing of clothing, boat construction, the inclusion of plants and their substances in medicines and ointments, and the production of reed coffins, ropes, cords, and nets. .
COSMETICS
Plants also played an important role in the production of cosmetics
and perfumes and in the mummification procedure. Cosmetics included
eye paints, face paints, oils, and ointments; vegetable matter was
mixed with other substances to provide eye coloring and face paints,
and a mixture of vegetable oil and lime was used as a face cleansing
agent. The manufacture of oils, perfumes, and resins also relied
heavily on plant ingredients, and Egyptian perfumes were famed
throughout the ancient world. Different kinds of plant oils and
solid animal fats were applied to the skin and hair, and fragrant
substances were added to these to improve their smell. Unlike modern
scents and perfumes, which are solutions in alcohol of various
plants and flowers, the Egyptians were not aware of the process of
distillation; instead they retained the plant odors in fat or oil,
and flowers, seeds, gum resins, and other fragrant substances were
steeped in oil and then wrung or squeezed in a cloth or sack, as
illustrated in various tomb scenes. There is no evidence of the use
of animal ingredients (ambergris, civet, and musk) in Egyptian
scents and perfumes, but studies of jar contents from tombs indicate
the presence of gum resin, myrrh, splinters of aromatic wood, plant
products, and palm or grape wine.
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INCENSE AND EMBALMING
MATERIALSThe Egyptians also used incense in their religious rituals; the most important types were frankincense (olibanum) and myrrh. Frankincense is a fragrant gum resin that comes from trees of the genus Boswellia, which grows mainly in Somalia and southern Arabia, and from Commiphora pedunculata, found in the Sudan and Abyssinia. The Egyptians obtained frankincense from both Nubia and Punt. Myrrh, another fragrant gum resin, is yielded by various species of Balsamodendron and Commiphora, which was also grown in Somalia and southern Arabia. Finally, plants and various plant derived resins and oils were used in mummification for cleansing the corpse either by injection or when it was washed down, for packing the body cavities, and for perfuming and anointing. It was intended that these plant products should assist the process of preservation, cleanse the tissues, enhance the suppleness of the skin tissue, and reduce or mask the odors associated with mummification. It is doubtful, however, that plant products made any major contribution to preserving the body or to repelling insects, but their one practical benefit may have been to partially conceal the unpleasant pleasant odors of the procedure. .
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Industry : Plant Products
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