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Christopher Green
 
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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