Scientists have found hundreds of meat mummies in ancient Egyptian tombs. Most of them are joints of meat or poultry, prepared as if for eating, then wrapped. Dark residue that covers the bandages appears organic balms applied to human and animal mummies.

They have symmetry, simple shapes, beauty, order, and harmony. They have a triangular pediment and horizontal frieze along the roofline.

Top 10 things you might find in a Pharaoh’s tomb – in pictures

• A mummy in a sarcophagus or burial coffin.
• Four canopic jars containing the organs of the deceased.
• Magic Egyptian amulets in the mummy’s wrappings.
• A copy of the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead.
• Household goods, including furniture, for use in the afterlife.
• Food to feed the deceased.

Their staple diet was bread, vegetables, fowl and even beer. If you were richer, you could afford port, mutton or wine. Tutankhamun himself would have eaten animals he’d hunted himself, such as ox.

Ancient Egyptians employed a variety of methods for food preservation. Great silos were constructed to preserve grain for long periods of time. Fish, meat, vegetables and fruits were were preserved by drying and salting. Grains were fermented to create beer.

Although no recipes from the times remain, we have a fair idea of how the Egyptians prepared their food thanks to dioramas and other objects left in tombs. Laborers ate two meals a day: a morning meal of bread, beer and often onions, and a more hearty dinner with boiled vegetables, meat and more bread and beer.

There were several ways of preserving meats available to the ancient Egyptians – drying, salting (dry and wet), smoking, a combination of any of these methods, pemmicaning, or using fat, beer, or honey curing.

The main part of every breakfast for ancient Egyptians was bread, along with onions, garlic, leeks and fruit. Breakfast would be somewhat heavy for many people, since most only ate two meals per day. Bread was a staple of Egyptian meals, and fruit, garlic, leeks, onions and even beans often were eaten alongside it.

Beer was far more popular than water and drunk by adults and children alike. Ancient Egyptians knew many types of beer; most were made from barley, some from emmer wheat, and many were flavoured with honey or ginger. Wine was another drink the Ancient Egyptians held in high esteem.

Tomb paintings, medical treatises, and archaeology reveal a variety of foods. Peasants and enslaved people would, of course, eat a limited diet, including the staples of bread and beer, complemented by dates, vegetables, and pickled and salted fish, but the wealthy had a much larger range to choose from.

Nefertiti

Amenhotep III