Why does everyone assume ancient diets were boring when we found evidence of diverse spices in Egypt?

The recent tomb findings show they used a wide range of flavors, contradicting the simple meal idea.

3 comments

3 Comments

Actually that fish sauce thing is wild lol. Makes you wonder if our idea of "simple" old food says more about us than them. Like, do we just picture them eating plain gruel because that's what we'd find boring? What other basic assumptions about daily life back then are totally wrong?

owens.nancy1mo ago

Right?! I saw a doc about ancient Rome and they were putting fermented fish sauce in everything lol. People have always loved flavor.

vera_brown4021d ago

Exactly, it's like we picture them as these serious, boring statues but they were probably just as obsessed with weird food trends as we are. I bet some Roman chef was out there making a "deconstructed dormouse" or something for the rich people. We just assume they had no fun because the buildings left are so grand and serious. But they were putting stinky fish juice on their snacks, so clearly they knew how to live a little.