The Date Palm in Ancient History part1

Topic Date Palm in Egypt

Introduction:

Date palm has given the latin name Phoenix dactylifera L.

The part L.: denoting Linnaeus (1707-1778), the Swedish botanist who brought this binomial name.

Phoenix: There are three explanations as to the etymology of Phoenix:
1. In Ancient Greece: It was the name of a legendary bird which haunted people’s minds throughout antiquity and still exists in the religious and artistic traditions of the Far East. The Greeks described Phoenix bird as a wonderful bird which lived through periods of many hundred years. It was said that before dying, this bird built its own funerary pile, setting fire to it by fanning it with its own wings and eventually arose again from its own ashes.
2. In Ancient Egypt: The date palm was known from the first Pharaonic dynasties. The Egyptian legendary bird was the greedy heron which was so widespread in the Nile valley and they called it ‘Bennu’ bird Fig (1). This bird was found on the mural paintings which decorate the tombs of the kings and the nobles, this bird was assimilated to the great ‘Sun-God’ ‘Ra’ and the sun itself. The terms ‘Bennu’, ‘bnr’, ‘bnr.t’ were also applied to the date palm fruit and to every thing sweet. The date palm was linked in ancient Egypt to the sun-bird and they giving both the same name indicating the importance of this tree to their life (Bircher,1990).
3. In Theophrastus’ days: (The famous botanist; 370-285 BC): There was Phoenicia which was the narrow coastal strip between the Mediterranean sea and the Jordan valley which is now ‘Israel’ and a part of ‘Lebanon’. This region was inhibited with a population with famous purple colour from the Murex shellfish, this colour called ‘Phoenix’ in their language. Theophrastus may derived the word ‘Phoenix’ and gave it to date palm fruits which appear purple on ripening (Bircher,1990).

Dactylifera: This latin term was derived from the Greek word ‘Dactylos’ which means finger. According Linnaeus this was meant tall and slender form. This word was used by ancient ‘Hebrew’ and Syrian names for date palm itself.

DATE IN ANCIENT EGYPT

Date palm has special religious, feeding and industrial values in Ancient Egypt. It was probably cultivated in the Nile Valley several thousand years before the first Hieroglyphs marks appeared. Date palm was given various names in Ancient Egypt, These names were cited in Hieroglyphic symbols (Darby, et al 1977 and Bircher, 1990) among of them: ‘Buno’, ‘Phuno’, ‘Bni’, ‘Bnr’ , ‘Benrt’, ‘Amt’ , ‘Bnrit’ and ‘Bniw’ for date juice. .

1. Old stone-age period: The earliest date palm finds recovered from Egypt was a date palm trunk found in Kharga Oasis (western desert). The sample was dated back to the old stony period.

2. Predynastic period: In Ruzikate (Sharkia province ) the excavations revealed a mummy robed with date palm leaves, in a site dating back to Predynastic period (c.3500 BC; Bircher, 1990). Fleshy part of date palm fruits was detected among the plants, identified from a beer cocktail excavated from a vat in Hierakonpolis site (upper Egypt). The site dated back to Predynastic period (3450 BC.). This was the earliest sample used as reference for usage of date palm for beer sweetening (Amer, 1994). However Darby, et al (1977) mentioned that date palm was used in Ancient Egypt for Beer sweetening.

3. Dynastic period: “In a clean place shall I sit on the ground. Beneath the foliage of a date palm of the goddess Hathor…” The Egyptian Book of Dead.
Date palm seeds were excavated among the botanical remains recovered from Abu Sir (Giza) tombs. These were used as mortuary offerings; the site dating back to the king’s ‘Down’ family belonging to the first dynasty (c. 2950 BC; Annual report, 1992). The columns’ crowns of king ‘Sahure’ in Saqqara were decorated with palm leaves Fig (2). A small date palm tree was found in Saqqara tomb dating back to the first and early second dynasty (c.2850 BC. ). Date was mentioned under the name ‘Bnrit’ among the decoration of ‘Nfer-Mehat’ tomb in Midoum dating back to fourth dynasty (c.2600 BC.). Rocky stones decorated with palm tree were found in ‘Ra Or’ tomb in Giza and ‘Betah Hotop’ tomb in Saqqara from the fifth dynasty (c.2400 BC; Nazir, 1970). Date palm trees were cultivated around a rectangular swimming pool in ‘Rakh Me Ra’ garden; this decoration was depicted on his tomb walls (Nazir, 1970). In Tel-El Amarana eighteenth dynasty (c.1580 BC.); the garden in the magnificent temple of priest ‘Meri Ra’, was decorated with various types of trees; the most notable ones were: date palm, dome palm, in addition to fig and pomegranate (Nazir, 1970). Date palm trees were cultivated in the nobles and kings gardens. Anna’s (Ineini), who was the keeper of cereal storage bins in ‘Amon Hotob’ the first era (New kingdom). The walls of his tomb were decorated with a paints representing his house garden. The names and the numbers of the cultivated trees were written too. There were twenty plant species among of them: seventy three fig trees; thirty one persa trees; one hundred and seventy date palm trees; one hundred and twenty dome-palm trees all these were cultivated around a large rectangular swimming pool( Nazir,1970). Some representative drawings are outlined in Figs(3, 4,5&6).

4. Graeco-Roman period:Date palm seeds were excavated from Douch Necropolis (Kharga Oasis-western desert); the site was dating back to Graeco-Roman period, 350 AD (Wagner,1982 and Barakat 1986).

5. Roman period: Large number of date palm seeds were excavated from Abu-Sha’ar site (Red sea coast); the site dating back to Roman period (c.500 AD.). The excavated seeds were morphologically sorted into five categories it was believed that these seeds were belonging to different desertic date palm cultivars.

ANCIENT RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS

Ancient Egyptians used date palm leaves as an emblem of longevity; the excavations revealed a kneeling man holding in his hands a bunch of palm leaves for longevity. Date palm was an emblem of the greatest God ‘Ammon Ra’. Hathor’ the goddess of life, joy, music, dancing and fertility had the date palm as one of her emblems. At Denderah (upper Egypt), a beautiful palm grove surrounded her famous sanctuary (Bitrcher,1990). ‘Thot’ the god of science and time (they believed that he who separates time into months and years had also the date palm as one of his attributes.) Whenever a pharaoh king celebrated the thirtieth jubilee of his reign, the so called ‘Heb Sed’ ceremony; he helds in his hands a bunch of palm mid-ribs (Fig 7). It was believed that into these very mid-ribs the god that had carved the notches corresponding the number of years that were still allowed to the reign and life of the king (Nazir,1970 and Bircher,1990).
Date fruits were among the wages paid to the workmen at Dier El-Medina temple (Darby, et al, 1977). In the dynastic period palm leaves were carried to the tombs as mortuary offerings Fig (8). The mortuary bouques made of date palm leaves were still used till the Graeco-Roman period (Barakat, 1982).

Date palm preservation:

Date palm fruits were preserved in Ancient Egypt by two methods:
1- The simplest method: It was by drying the fruits in a direct sun light for two or three days and left at shaded place till become completely dried to be in ‘Tamr’ form. A representative sample of this method was deposited in Agricultural Museum, Cairo; the sample dating back to eighteenth dynasty and excavated from ‘Tibba’ (Upper Egypt).
2- The second method: It was applied to date palm fruits with higher moisture content than the previous method. This method was performed by pressing a large number of date fruits in basket made of date palm leaves for several days. The resulted date was called ‘Agua’. A representative sample was deposited in Agricultural Museum, Cairo (No. 39897); the sample dating back to the New Kingdom. Both methods are still used in Arab countries for date preservation.

Ancient date industries
Ancient Egyptians used palm trunks for roofing and leaves for basket making (Fig 9; Nazir,1970; Darby, et al, 1977). Leaves were used for manufacture of sandals (Fig 10) especially for the priests and the temple’s workers to whom animal substances were not allowed (Nazir,1970). There were three hundred and sixty date palm products mentioned by Wilkinson (1854). Among of these products a special type of wine known as ‘Araqe’, which is still manufactured in rural areas of Egypt (Nazir,1970). Date palm wine was mentioned on two ostraca of the nineteenth dynasty in the Cairo Museum. Pliny was cited that date palm wine was made throughout all the countries of the East; which probably was meant to include Egypt (Lucas and Harris,1962).

MEDICINAL USES OF DATE PALM IN ANCIENT EGYPT

Date palm fruit or their juice were used in Ancient Egypt in many medicinal remedies. Some of them here mentioned based on Darby, et al (1977) and Manniche (1989):
1. A remedy for swelling of any limb of a man: Fresh dates, date kernels, dry myrrh, wax were combined to a paste and bandage for four days.
2. A remedy made for swollen and aching legs: Red natron was mixed with fermented date juice and the legs were bandaged therewith.
3. A remedy to suell cough in a child: Dried crushed date are ground in a ‘hin’ of milk and drunk by the child.
4. A remedy to kill worms: Date kernels, carob pod pulp, sweet beer were mixed, boiled, strained and drunk; the remedy had instant effect.
5. A remedy to cure heat of the heart: Fresh dates, honey, sweet beer were mixed and administer to the anus for four days.
6. A remedy for sneezing: Date juice fill the opening of the nose with it.
7. A remedy to accelerate hair growth: Bone of a dog, date kernels, donkey’s hoof, boiled well in a jar with oil or fat and used as an unguent. Date beer was mentioned with many writers (Lucas and Harris,1962; Darby, et al ,1977; and Nazir,1970) that it was used in mummification.

More to come!

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