An Ancient Egyptian Herbal.

• Author: Moens, Marie-Francine

Plants played an important role in the daily life of the ancient Egyptians. In a lengthy introduction the author describes their many uses. She brings alive the splendor of the ancient Egyptian garden, immortalized in colorful wall paintings and lively clay models. Then follows a detailed description of bouquets, garlands, and collars made of floral material. As we can judge from literary and pictorial sources, the numbers of bouquets used in temple services, festivities and funerals are impressive. The Egyptians adored flowers not only for their beauty, but also for sacred and symbolic qualities. Certain plants were believed to. have repelling properties for insects and rodents or were used to leave a pleasant smell in the rooms after fumigating. Others were sources of dye. Ancient Egyptian cooking is also discussed; inasmuch as no ancient Egyptian cookbooks survived, we get a taste of ancient Egyptian food from recipes written by classical authors. Perfumes and cosmetics, many of them manufactured on the basis of herbal material, were highly in demand in ancient Egypt. We are provided with authentic recipes of oils, unguents, perfumes and even depilatory creams. The introduction ends with a short overview of ancient Egyptian medicine.

The herbal contains a selection of herbs and trees available to the ancient Egyptians, including native as well as imported plants. For each plant a detailed discussion of its properties and its use is given. The main criterion for including a species is its record in ancient Egyptian texts, in texts from contemporary neighboring civilizations, in treatises by classical authors or in the medical works of the Copts. References to archaeological finds of plant material and to pictorial sources are illustrative, but not exhaustive. The plants are alphabetically ordered and are named, if possible, in Latin, English, ancient Egyptian, Coptic, Greek, and modern Egyptian Arabic. The author sometimes unambiguously identifies an ancient Egyptian plant name, although there still is discussion among Egyptologists about its exact meaning (e.g., nsti p. 68, h syt p. 81, smsmt p. 82, mhmh P...