I am curious if the ancient Egyptians had fava beans to eat. In modern
Egypt we have a national dish called Ful Medames which is made from
fava. Some believe this might be a very ancient Egyptian dish. In
Greco-Roman writers some papyrus soup is mentioned but the writers did
not go into much details. Alan K. Bowman in his book Egypt After the
Pharaohs mentions this. Any suggestions or comments?

On 11 Nov 2004 15:29:20 -0800, (FANTIMA)
wrote:

I am curious if the ancient Egyptians had fava beans to eat. In modern
Egypt we have a national dish called Ful Medames which is made from
fava. Some believe this might be a very ancient Egyptian dish. In
Greco-Roman writers some papyrus soup is mentioned but the writers did
not go into much details. Alan K. Bowman in his book Egypt After the
Pharaohs mentions this. Any suggestions or comments?

Apparently nobody has been able to pinpoint the time when favas were
domesticated, but they are known to have been used as food back to at
least 6500 BC and were consumed widely in the Middle East as early as
the second millennium BC. Local culture and heirloom strains of favas
go back much farther than any known records. Ful medames is surely of
ancient origin, but exactly how ancient hasn't been determined yet, so
far as I can tell.

--
Chris Green

{ Local culture and heirloom strains of favas
go back much farther than any known records. Ful medames is surely of
ancient origin, but exactly how ancient hasn't been determined yet, so
far as I can tell.]


Do you think this might be the papyrus type soup described in
Greco-Roman sources? I got thie information from Alan K. Bowman's
book entitled Egypt After the Pharaohs. This book talks about the
papyrus type soup that might be the predsessor of Ful Medames.