What was the Ancient Egyptians Sanitation and Nutrition like?
The Nile river was one of the safest and richest agricultural areas in the world. It flooded at precisely the right time each year leaving nutrient rich silt on the ground for planting season. This made the planting process extremely easy for the ancient Egyptians and they would just toss their seeds on a vast area of the nutritious silt and then bring their cattle and/or pigs to trample along the ground, pushing their seeds far into the soil. These crops would then grow with nutritious wheat and barley which were further harvested to make beer and bread. Farmers also grew a vast selection of fruits and vegetables such as leeks, lentils, lettuce, gourds, melons, pomegranates, grapes and figs. This provided the Egyptians with a large surplus of nutritious foods that required little work and energy to grow. The most wealthy Egyptians had the privilege to enjoy banquets of delicious meats such as duck, gazelle or roasted ox followed by a serving of honey or date cakes. Yet the Egyptians less wealthy didn’t receive large amounts of meat and poultry, but fish that they caught in the Nile instead. However despite the vast options of food available to the ancient Egyptians, there has been proof found in some of the mummified Egyptians that suggests that some of them had nutrition deficiencies. Many children and adult skulls discovered by modern day scientists have revealed that large amounts of Egyptians suffered from an iron deficiency believed caused by both the parasites that lived in their blood and the small amounts of iron that was consumed. This common condition is called Anaemia and left marks on the roofs on the eye sockets on the skull that are viewed as small holes. Great amounts of mummies that are being investigated today have these marks on their skulls and indicates to scientists that a lot of ancient Egytians suffered from Anaemia. Many Egyptians based their entire diet on cereals and grain, which don't contain the right amounts of iron necessary to live healthy. The consumption of meats had the largest containment of iron and since the poorer Egyptians didn't have access to these meats, they become extremely anaemic as a child and then it stays with them throughout their whole life. However even the wealthiest Egyptians who had access to all the meat, may not have consumed it very often either.
Sanitation
The ancient Egyptians practiced sanitation methods often and it improved over time. The methods they invented were mainly effective in serving the Egyptians with their basic needs.
Disposal of wastage and rubbish: The Egyptians dedicated the irrigation canals to the storage of waste but it was each households own responsibility to dispose their individual waste at the communal dump. A consequence of this method is that it became a breeding ground for many diseases and vermin that harmed the Egyptians health and put their crops in danger.
Toilets and Showers: In terms of toilets and personal hygiene, some Egyptians that had the resources and wealth, built them right inside their homes and there has been some evidence found that revealed in the New Kingdom, the gentry (most respected people), had a small bathroom built in their large home. The toilet seats for the gentry were made from limestone. For showering the gentry, who had very large houses, had a bathroom next to their master bedroom that contained a shallow, stone bath-tub that the person stood in and had water poured over them. There has been no evidence found that the common people of ancient Egypt had either a toilet or a bath-tub. Instead it is believed that they bathed in the Nile River and went toilet on a wooden stool with a hole in it and below the hole there was a container of sand which was emptied by hand. Bathing in the Nile River proved to be quite bad regarding hygiene. This is because of the large amounts of parasites that lived in the Nile River and when the ancient Egyptians bathed in the river, these parasites, such as the Schistosoma worm, accessed the persons bloodstream through their feet or legs, to lay their eggs.
Crop Irrigation: For their crop irrigation, the ancient Egyptians relied on the Nile River. The ancient Egyptians accurately knew exactly when Nile River was due to flood, beginning in the south in July and then by mid-August, the flood was at its peak level. This season was called Akhet: the flooding season. The extra water flow would originally come from monsoon-type rain in the Ethiopian highlands and some would also come from the upper side of the White Nile, situated near Lake Victoria in Africa. At its peak level, the Nile River would cover all the food plain at a depth of 1.5 metres. The flood water would start to recede in early October and in late November, most of the valley had been drained to drying point. The ancient Egyptians used a water management process adapted to these flood times called Basin Irrigation. For this process, Egyptians constructed earthen banks that were both parallel and perpendicular to the Nile River. This formed basins of various sizes and sluices would direct the water into these basins. Then this water would sit in each basin for around a month until the soil had been saturated, and the remaining water would be drained into another basin or back into a canal. In this saturated soil, farmers would grow their crops on a nutrient rich silt provided from the flood waters of the Nile River. This process would happen from October to February which was the Peret season: growing season. Then from March-May it was the Shemu season: the harvesting season. The Egyptians used this system for almost 1,500 years and it covered over 800 hectares of land! Then it was replaced by an improved system of the shaduf which originated in Mesopotamia and allowed the area of cultivated land to expand by 10-15 percent. The shaduf is a large pole balanced on a cross beam, with a rope and a bucket placed on one end and a heavy weight on the other. When the farmer pulled the rope it would lower the bucket into the water, filling it up and then the farmer would pull down on the weight to bring the bucket back out of the water. The farmer would then swing the pole around and empty the bucket of water onto the field. However one problem with these systems is that it didn't allow much room for unexpected environmental factors such as a higher flood level or a lower flood level than expected each year. If the Nile River was to flood too high, it would destroy these constructed management systems and if it was to flood lower, it could lead to a food famine because it wouldn't have enough water to irrigate as many crops as per usual. Even a small drop of the flood water level of 2 meters would leave a maximum of a third of the food plain unwatered!
Water Gathering: To receive their crucial water, Egyptians relied on the Nile River and the canals as their only sources. The Nile River was so predictable and calm that the ancient Egyptians developed a simple, manual water gathering process. Like the process of disposing their waste, each household were responsible for their own water supply. The women in ancient Egypt gathered the water and formed many small groups that would get the water together. Meanwhile the men would do their household's laundry in groups as well. A problem that raised from this water gathering process is that the water contained parasites such as the Guinea Worm which was consumed in their water that was received from the Nile River. These Guinea worms would travel through many internal organs and then lay their eggs in the bloodstream of the persons feet and legs. This parasite makes people very weak and puts them in danger of catching other diseases.
With none of the modern day technologies we use today available, ancient Egyptians developed very workable and practical sanitation processes that proved to have been mainly effective in keeping their civilisation running.
Sanitation
The ancient Egyptians practiced sanitation methods often and it improved over time. The methods they invented were mainly effective in serving the Egyptians with their basic needs.
Disposal of wastage and rubbish: The Egyptians dedicated the irrigation canals to the storage of waste but it was each households own responsibility to dispose their individual waste at the communal dump. A consequence of this method is that it became a breeding ground for many diseases and vermin that harmed the Egyptians health and put their crops in danger.
Toilets and Showers: In terms of toilets and personal hygiene, some Egyptians that had the resources and wealth, built them right inside their homes and there has been some evidence found that revealed in the New Kingdom, the gentry (most respected people), had a small bathroom built in their large home. The toilet seats for the gentry were made from limestone. For showering the gentry, who had very large houses, had a bathroom next to their master bedroom that contained a shallow, stone bath-tub that the person stood in and had water poured over them. There has been no evidence found that the common people of ancient Egypt had either a toilet or a bath-tub. Instead it is believed that they bathed in the Nile River and went toilet on a wooden stool with a hole in it and below the hole there was a container of sand which was emptied by hand. Bathing in the Nile River proved to be quite bad regarding hygiene. This is because of the large amounts of parasites that lived in the Nile River and when the ancient Egyptians bathed in the river, these parasites, such as the Schistosoma worm, accessed the persons bloodstream through their feet or legs, to lay their eggs.
Crop Irrigation: For their crop irrigation, the ancient Egyptians relied on the Nile River. The ancient Egyptians accurately knew exactly when Nile River was due to flood, beginning in the south in July and then by mid-August, the flood was at its peak level. This season was called Akhet: the flooding season. The extra water flow would originally come from monsoon-type rain in the Ethiopian highlands and some would also come from the upper side of the White Nile, situated near Lake Victoria in Africa. At its peak level, the Nile River would cover all the food plain at a depth of 1.5 metres. The flood water would start to recede in early October and in late November, most of the valley had been drained to drying point. The ancient Egyptians used a water management process adapted to these flood times called Basin Irrigation. For this process, Egyptians constructed earthen banks that were both parallel and perpendicular to the Nile River. This formed basins of various sizes and sluices would direct the water into these basins. Then this water would sit in each basin for around a month until the soil had been saturated, and the remaining water would be drained into another basin or back into a canal. In this saturated soil, farmers would grow their crops on a nutrient rich silt provided from the flood waters of the Nile River. This process would happen from October to February which was the Peret season: growing season. Then from March-May it was the Shemu season: the harvesting season. The Egyptians used this system for almost 1,500 years and it covered over 800 hectares of land! Then it was replaced by an improved system of the shaduf which originated in Mesopotamia and allowed the area of cultivated land to expand by 10-15 percent. The shaduf is a large pole balanced on a cross beam, with a rope and a bucket placed on one end and a heavy weight on the other. When the farmer pulled the rope it would lower the bucket into the water, filling it up and then the farmer would pull down on the weight to bring the bucket back out of the water. The farmer would then swing the pole around and empty the bucket of water onto the field. However one problem with these systems is that it didn't allow much room for unexpected environmental factors such as a higher flood level or a lower flood level than expected each year. If the Nile River was to flood too high, it would destroy these constructed management systems and if it was to flood lower, it could lead to a food famine because it wouldn't have enough water to irrigate as many crops as per usual. Even a small drop of the flood water level of 2 meters would leave a maximum of a third of the food plain unwatered!
Water Gathering: To receive their crucial water, Egyptians relied on the Nile River and the canals as their only sources. The Nile River was so predictable and calm that the ancient Egyptians developed a simple, manual water gathering process. Like the process of disposing their waste, each household were responsible for their own water supply. The women in ancient Egypt gathered the water and formed many small groups that would get the water together. Meanwhile the men would do their household's laundry in groups as well. A problem that raised from this water gathering process is that the water contained parasites such as the Guinea Worm which was consumed in their water that was received from the Nile River. These Guinea worms would travel through many internal organs and then lay their eggs in the bloodstream of the persons feet and legs. This parasite makes people very weak and puts them in danger of catching other diseases.
With none of the modern day technologies we use today available, ancient Egyptians developed very workable and practical sanitation processes that proved to have been mainly effective in keeping their civilisation running.