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68 | BACKDIRT 2019
The summer of 2019 was one of my most adventur-
ous and productive seasons during my time at the
Cotsen Institute. My trips covered five countries, and
my goals varied—from collecting data for my disser-
tation in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and Museo
Egizio in Turin, Italy, to interacting and training with
scholars in the field of archaeobotany in Canada, the
Netherlands, and Spain. I ended my summer with
an internship in a stable isotope laboratory, where I
worked with paleodietary construction methods using
collagen extracted from human and animal bones.
This internship was hosted by Michael Richards at
Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia,
and was funded by the Canadian Institute at UCLA.
My summer started with participation in excava-
tions of a fourth-century CE Roman villa in Aguila-
fuente, Segovia, Spain. This villa appeared to have
been reused in the sixth century CE for mass burials
by Visigoths. The city is known for its pine forests
and the associated resin industry, rain-fed grain fields,
and the first printed book on the Iberian Peninsula.
I was invited by Jesus Herrerin and Nataša Šarkić
to teach a session on stable isotope application for
paleodiet in the field and to receive training from them
on bioarchaeological methods for the reconstruction
of paleodiet. After this trip I went to the Netherlands
to participate in an advanced archaeobotany summer
laboratory school called Food from Field to Forks:
An Archaeobotanical Approach, organized by René
Cappers and Merit Hondelink of the University of
Groningen.
Charged with a lot of archaeobotanical energy,
I traveled to Turin, Italy, to analyze the remarkably
well-preserved foodstuffs left as offerings in the tomb
of Kha (the Shining One) and his wife Merit (the
Beloved One). Kha was the overseer of workers who
build the tombs in the Valley of the Kings and lived in
An Archaeobotanical
Study of the Food in the
Tomb of Kha and Merit
Amr Khalaf Shahat
FEATURES
FIELD REPORTS
AND
I ended my
summer with an
internship in a
stable isotope
laboratory.
BACKDIRT 2019 | 69
the settlement of Deir al-Medina, just west of Luxor
in Egypt. He was a high official under the reign of the
pharaohs Amenhotep II, Thutmose IV, and Amenho-
tep III during the New Kingdom (1540–1975 BCE).
The tomb (Theban Tomb 8) was found completely
undisturbed in 1906 by Arthur Weigall and Ernesto
Schiaparelli. Following this discovery, the food
remains found in the tomb were analyzed by the Ital-
ian botanist Oreste Mattirolo, who published his find-
ings in January 1920, almost 100 years ago. Thanks
to the help of Willeke Wendrich and Carrie Arbuckle
MacLeod, it was quite an honor for me to be the first
to receive permission to analyze this unique collection
since Mattirolo did so.
The food offerings in the tomb of Kha invite
excitement and pose challenges to the methods
and theory of archaeobotany. Most food offerings
appeared to be fruits from the palm family (Areca-
ceae), including dates (Phoenix dactylifera) with their
skin preserved, and doum nuts (Hyphaene thebaica).
Next to these, large quantities of imported fruits
were found preserved in baskets and ceramic bowls.
Among these imported species were almonds (Prunus
dulcis). The identification of almonds was confirmed
by Merit Hondelink (who happens to share her first
name with the wife of the tomb owner). Interestingly,
the almonds occurred together with the tubers—or
botanically more accurate, the rhizomes—of tiger nuts
(Cyperus esculentus). These were found in a closed
wooden box with a drawer inscribed with Hieratic
(cursive Egyptian). It read, “For the soul of the over-
seer of the work, Kha.” The most abundant imported
fruits were species of juniper berries (both Juniperus
drupacea and J. phoenicea). Large quantities of the
former were found in a basket (Figure 1).
Figure 1. A covered basket containing juniper berries (Juniperus drupacea) from the
ancient Egyptian tomb of Kha and Merit. (Museo Egizio S.8414)
The food
offerings in the
tomb of Kha
invite excitement.
70 | BACKDIRT 2019
Juniper berries are harvested from conifer trees
growing at high altitudes and are foreign to Egypt.
Stable isotope experiments on archaeobotanical mate-
rial that I conducted in Berkeley, under supervision of
Christine Hastorf and Todd Dawson, helped me inter-
pret where these food items likely came from. Based
on my analysis of juniper berries found by George
Reisner in non-elite burials at Deir al-Ballas (dated to
3448–3375 cal BP), performed within the framework
of my dissertation research (Figure 2), the fruits were
apparently grown in extremely water-stressed condi-
tions (δ13C = –19.5 ± 0.1‰). This is in sharp contrast
with all other food offerings found in the same tomb,
which originated from the Nile Valley. Stable isotope
analysis can thus differentiate between nonnative fruit
species that were grown locally, as an addition to the
local agricultural system, and those that continued to
be imported from other regions.
Back in Egypt, I conducted a small ethnographic
study on juniper berries by visiting several spice shops
and herbariums. The name for the plant in Egyptian
Arabic, ‘ar‘ar sury (Syrian juniper), suggests import
from the Levant, especially Syria and Lebanon. Juni-
per also grows along the coastal areas of the Aegean
Sea, including Crete, the Cyclades, and the Pelopon-
nese, and is attested in mainland Greece since the
Paleolithic (Asouti et al. 2015, 2018). This possibil-
ity as a source region should thus not be excluded.
To establish the exact possible region of origin, I am
conducting further analyses.
Figure 2. The author at work in the laboratory.
FOOD IN THE TOMB
This level of
preservation comes
with challenges
and a huge
responsibility.
BACKDIRT 2019 | 71
The biggest surprise, however, struck me during
my last day of archaeobotanical analysis on the tomb
of Kha and Merit in Turin. I opened a basket full of
cumin (Cuminum cyminum) that preserved its smell
after thousands of years (Figure 3). While this extreme
level of preservation invites excitement, it comes with
challenges and a huge responsibility to conduct the
best analysis without disturbing the context. Protocols
of analysis in the field of archaeobotany often assume
that materials were preserved by charring or desic-
cation and were subsequently retrieved from soils.
Desiccated materials that preserve their shape and
context, such as a covered basket or a sealed box, do
not fit these protocols of analysis. Conducting quan-
titative methods without disturbing the objects is
another challenge. Meanwhile, the materials have high
potential for advancing our understanding of ancient
foodstuffs and beverages in their cultural settings as
well as the reconstruction of paleoecology and long-
distance trade and cultural interactions.
REFERENCES CITED
Asouti, Eleni, Ceren Kabukcu, Chantel E. White, Ian Kuijt,
Bill Finlayson, and Cheryl Makarewicz. 2015. Early
Holocene Woodland Vegetation and Human Impacts
in the Arid Zone of the Southern Levant. Holocene
25(10):1565–80.
Asouti, Eleni, Maria Ntinou, and Ceren Kabukcu. 2018. The
Impact of Environmental Change on Palaeolithic and
Mesolithic Plant Use and the Transition to Agriculture
at Franchthi Cave, Greece. Public Library of Science
ONE 13(11):e0207805, electronic document, doi.
org/10.1371/journal.pone.0207805.
Figure 3. A covered basket containing cumin (Cuminum cyminum), still emitting its smell,
from the ancient Egyptian tomb of Kha and Merit. (Museo Egizio S.8415)
