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In orchards grape vines were the object of special attention. Cultivating them was one of the gardeners most important jobs. To give you an idea of the how important, the hieroglyphic sign for vine is used in the writing of the words orchard and gardener.
There were also specific jobs with titles like "Master of the Vinyard," and "Master of the Vine-Dresser." The plants were watered by hand generally from a water basin. There were four ways to grow grape vines. One was to erect two wood pillars with the upper ends forked, and a wooden pole laid over the top where the vines were laid. This type of support also forms a hieroglyph which is used in the words meaning 'garden,' 'wine,' and 'vine'. A second way is to train the grape vines to grow on trellis's supported on transverse rafters that rested on columns. Occasionally the columns were carved and painted. A third way was to make vine arbors consisting of branches with the ends placed in the ground to form an arch. And lastly, some vines were grown and pruned to make low bushes and needed no support.The more elaborate vinyards, especially royal ones, could be quite opulent. They would house a variety of sweet fruit trees that line walkways and provided shade; there would be flowers from all over the world and a plethora of lotus and papyrus. They often had terraces and enclosed pools that provided irrigation and had lovely water plants floating freely. You would also find complex and ornate shrubbery, beautiful statuary and decorative columns By the time of King Zoser, whose step pyramid was the first pyramid built, there existed a partial list of vinyards including the famous vinyard "Horus on the Height of Heaven" which produced wine into the Greek period. Egyptians labeled their wine much like we do now, and such a label was found in Saqqara listing the vinyard as the famous Star of Horus on the Height of Heaven in the nothern Xois District. The wine was called Chassut Red (which was said to be good only after fermenting 100 years), Sekem-ka was the vinter, and the wine's quality was classified as twice good (nfr nfr). |
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Written by Hilarity Hatshepsut with assistance from Sankira Qin. Site design by Sankira Qin. The authors wish to gratefully acknowledge MerytMaihes Osorkon, Sementawy Horemheb, Menes Mentuhotep, Marduk Hammurabi, Asenath Amenhotep, Mirjam Nebet, Shesmu Ramesses, and Kaz Matsudaira for their research and graphics assistance. | |