Dear zoeygoo-ga,
In the past few years archaeologists have been able to provide an
answer to the question: Who built the pyramids at Giza? Their findings
have revealed much of the life and times of the builders of the
pyramids.
From their archaeological findings – tombs, hieroglyphs, artifacts and
rubbish - one can build up a picture of the builders’ diet which
included bread, beef, pork, sheep, beer, birds and fish. Obviously the
supervisors and administrators would have had a more varied diet than
the builders and labourers.
Dr. Zahi Hawass / Undersecretary of the State for the Giza Monuments
has been responsible for the recent excavations of the tombs of the
workmen who built the pyramids at Giza. His web site provides a
fascinating insight into the life and times of these builders. He has
found that "skilled builders and craftsmen probably worked year round
at the pyramid construction site" with "peasant farmers from the
surrounding villages and provinces rotated in and out of a labor
force".
"Among the artifacts are thousands of fragments of every day pottery
and bread molds, cooking pots, beer jars and trays for sifting grain
and flour." ... "Also domesticated animal bones, such as beef, pork
and sheep with butchers marks on them."
Clues can be found in the ceremonial offerings. One tomb contained "a
list of feast days and offerings for the deceased including bread,
beer, birds, and oxen." and a list of offerings of "14 types of
bread, cakes, onions, beef, grain, figs and other fruits, beer, and
wine."
Source
http://www.guardians.net/hawass/buildtomb.htm
http://www.guardians.net/hawass/
Another archaeologist involved in the excavations, Mark Lehner, writes
that the builders ".. ate emmer-wheat bread, lentils, honey, fish,
sheep, pig, and goat, and drank beer. Lehner's team has uncovered many
bakeries and even replicated an archaic and unique way of making
bread" by baking loaves in clay jars in ashpits. His excavators have
also found a clay hearth for smelting copper, with ash and charcoal
still inside and a copper needle and fishhook nearby."
Source
http://www.discover.com/oct_01/featlost.html
"Mark Lehner has already discovered a copper-processing plant, two
bakeries with enough moulds to make hundreds of bell-shaped loaves,
and a fish-processing unit complete with the fragile, dusty remains of
thousands of fish. This is food production on a truly massive scale,
although as yet Lehner has discovered neither storage facilities nor
the warehouses"
"The animal bones recovered from this area and from the pyramid town
include duck, the occasional sheep and pig and, most unexpectedly,
choice cuts of prime beef. The ducks, sheep and pigs could have been
raised amidst the houses and workshops of the pyramid town but cattle,
an expensive luxury, must have been grazed on pasture - probably the
fertile pyramid estates in the Delta - and then transported live for
butchery at Giza."
Source
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/pyramid_builders_06.shtml
I recommend you start the last link at this starting page as the whole
article provides a fascinating insight into the "The Private Lives of
the Pyramid-builder"
Source
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/pyramid_builders_01.shtml
I hope this answers your question. If it does not, or the answer is
unclear, then please ask for clarification of this research before
rating the answer. I shall respond to the clarification request as
soon as I receive it.
Thank you
answerfinder
Search strategy
"pyramid builders" food
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