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| Wheat in Ancient Egypt |
One of the principal cereals and the major
foods in ancient Egypt, Emmer Wheat (on great occasions Einkorn Wheat or Common Wheat) was used to have bread and porridge, and it was likewise used in funerary rites. On the stella of King
Ramses II, the pharaoh states: "Lower Egypt rowed to Upper Egypt for you, with barleycorn, wheat, salt, and beans without number." Wheat mixed with water was thought to still constipation. As a symbolization of translation and deathless life, grain itself was thought to have magical properties. One of the measures of mummification enclosed rubbing the body with wheat and barley so that the passed could live again. Mummies sometimes wore a laced necklace of wheat admits.
Matching to Egyptian myths, wheat grown out of the body of a woman, while barley grew out of the body of a man. This excuses an ancient pregnancy test: a woman who suspected that she was pregnant would urinate on a two piles of grain, wheat and barley. If the wheat risen, she would have a girl; if the barley risen, she would have a boy; and if neither shot, she was not pregnant.
