Posted on 01/15/2006 5:28:17 PM PST by blam
Egypt Mummy Shows Taste for Pork
By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News
Jan. 10, 2005 — Ancient Egyptians — unlike their Muslim modern descendents — had a taste for pork, according to a mummy autopsy.
In a study to be published in the coming months in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Fabrizio Bruschi, a pathologist from Italy's Pisa University, and colleagues report the discovery of the oldest known case of cysticercosis — a pig-related disease — in a mummy from the late Ptolemaic period (II-I century B.C.).
Often contracted from undercooked pork, cysticercosis is an infection caused by the pork tapeworm Taenia solium.
Known as the "mummia di Narni," from the town in central Italy where it is kept, the mummy belongs to a young woman about 20 years old. Most likely an upper-class lady, she rests in a beautiful wooden sarcophagus.
Embalmed with a technique that required evisceration followed by re-deposition of the internal organs in the body cavities, the mummy was in ideal condition for autopsy.
On removal of the stomach and its rehydration, the researchers noticed a cystic lesion in the stomach wall.
"Light microscopy of sections derived from this lesion revealed a cyst of 6x4 mm in size, with numerous projecting eversions. This is a characteristic feature of the larval stage of the human tapeworm Taenia solium. Immunohistochemical testing confirmed the cysticercosis diagnosis," Bruschi told Discovery News.
Uncommon in the industrialised world, cysticercosis nevertheless affects an estimated 50 million people worldwide. Endemic areas include Central and South America, sub-Saharan Africa, India, and East Asia.
The infection occurs when the tapeworm larvae enter the body and form cysts.
Once inside the stomach, the tapeworm eggs disseminate in the bloodstream. Although cysticerci may be found in almost any tissue, the most frequently reported locations are the muscle and the central nervous system.
Symptoms, which can occur months to years after infection, include mood swings and epilepsy.
The mummy's diagnosis confirms that pigs were herded and raised in the Hellenistic Egypt.
Indeed, archaeological finds of pig bones indicate that pork has been an element of diet at different times in Egyptian history.
"Throughout ancient Egyptian history, pigs were associated with the god Set/Seth, the 'evil' broth of Osiris. During times when worship of Osiris was in the ascendency, pork was rejected as food; during times when worship of Seth was in the ascendency, pork was enjoyed," Louis Grivetti, professor of nutrition at the University of California, Davis, told Discovery News.
There were Congressmen in ancient Egypt?
BumP FoR BBQ Pork
"You know, if I were a single man, I might ask that mummy out. That's a good-looking mummy" ~X42
I'll have to file this under "NO FRIGGIN' WAY" in order to express my disbelief on this forum.
APf
Damn those southern Maine farm deer!
Eat me at your peril.
Obviously, that is because the ancient Egyptians were not Muslims.
Islam only adopted certain practices in their religion because they hijacked them from Judaism (dietary restrictions, praying towards Mecca instead of Jerusalem, etc) and also from Christianity.
Islam is like a "me too!" belief, but warped beyond the pale.
Jews didn't eat pork just for this reason....it was a health issue. Pretty smart, eh?
I read years ago that Egyptians would not eat pork, not because it was unclean but because it was sacred.
Only on certain occasions of honoring the gods would they eat pork.
Pork eaters can build pyramids.
Not a thing to rival pyramids, ever since.
Well, not until American ingenuity came up with pork designed to outlast the pyramids.
First of all it is silly to say that there was no prohibition on eating pork becaus ONE mummy showed evidence of eating pork. Even if the person did eat pork it doesn't mean that there was no prohibition in their culture on eating pork. (A lot of Jewish people today don't always eat Kosher.)
"The Egyptians did have a prohibition on not eating pork. There was however an exception to this rule. The Greek historian Herodotus mentions that certain priests and priestesses were allowed to eat pork during special sacrifices to the moon god. In Herodotus' history he says:
The pig is accounted by the Egyptians an abominable animal; and first, if any of them in passing by touch a pig, he goes into the river and dips himself forthwith in the water together with his garments; and then too swineherds, though they may be native Egyptians, unlike all others, do not enter any of the temples in Egypt, nor is anyone willing to give his daughter in marriage to one of them or to take a wife from among them; but the swineherds both give in marriage to one another and take from one another. Now to the other gods the Egyptians do not think it right to sacrifice swine; but to the Moon and to Dionysos alone at the same time and on the same full-moon they sacrifice swine, and then eat their flesh: and as to the reason why, when they abominate swine at all their other feasts, they sacrifice them at this, there is a story told by the Egyptians; and this story I know, but it is not a seemly one for me to tell. Now the sacrifice of the swine to the Moon is performed as follows:--when the priest has slain the victim, he puts together the end of the tail and the spleen and the caul, and covers them up with the whole of the fat of the animal which is about the paunch, and then he offers them with fire; and the rest of the flesh they eat on that day of full moon upon which they have held sacrifice, but on any day after this they will not taste of it: the poor however among them by reason of the scantiness of their means shape pigs of dough and having baked them they offer these as a sacrifice. Then for Dionysos on the eve of the festival each one kills a pig by cutting its throat before his own doors, and after that he gives the pig to the swineherd who sold it to him, to carry away again..."
BTTT
Amen Hildy. The book of Leviticus also had incredible information on other health issues, for instance, the practice of placing latrines outside of the camp, a prohibition on touching dead bodies, the practice of washing before you eat, the disposal of infected clothing and garments, etc.
Even during the Middle Ages, the concept of germs was totally foreign to people, but because the Jews practiced what was outlined in Leviticus, they were healthier.
In the ancient village of Trier in Germany, there is still a gate called the "Juden." The Jews were forced to live in their own separate section of the town. The tour guide said that people in Europe thought the Jews were engaged in some kind of witchcraft, because they did not succumb to diseases as often or as quickly as the rest of the village.
Believable. Most men ARE porkers! :)
And not all mummies are women! (had to add that before someone pointed out that mummy was female!) :P
It's more complicated than that. I'll propose another theory.
Human and pig stomachs and digestive systems are the same so, we eat the same thing. In these ancient societies humans were constantly on the verge of starvation...it was not unusual for mothers to have to decide which of her children to save.
The food used to 'fatten' a pig could have gone to feed about ten humans. The biomass conversion to obtain protein from pork would have been great and people with children dying would have been up in arms and disrupting villages all the time when they saw the 'rich' feeding their pigs.
This created so many (repeated) problems that the religious leaders finally outlawed pork. Cows and other herbivores were okay because they can eat and digest celluose that humans can't.
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