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All the United States New York State New York City Manhattan Ancient Egyptian Beef Shoulder
Gastro Obscura

Ancient Egyptian Beef Shoulder

Even for Egyptian royalty, the afterlife was bring-your-own-beef.

New York, New York

Added By
Luke Fater
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The mummified beef shoulder, likely of Prince Amenemhat.   Public Domain
The unsuspecting “beefcase” tucked into its final resting place, in Gallery 109.   Beth Dixson for Atlas Obscura
  Kai Pilger
Display with beef   GardinersBay / Atlas Obscura User
Meat shoulder with wood carved poultry.   ickaimp / Atlas Obscura User
Shoulder is in the lower left in this case.   ickaimp / Atlas Obscura User
Text on the glass case the shoulder is in.   ickaimp / Atlas Obscura User
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To prepare royals for their transition to the afterlife, ancient Egyptians preserved their corpses with ointments and other treatments before wrapping them in linen. Sometimes, they repeated this sacred process with their beef. 

Gallery 109 in New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art is home to a 3,500-year-old, custom-made food vessel—a "beefcase," if you will—that likely accompanied the young prince Amenemhat to his final resting place. The mummified cow's shoulder excavated from a pharaonic site near Luxor, Egypt, is one of many "meat mummies" found nestled alongside the remains of high-born Egyptian figures. According to NPR, Tutankhamun was buried with multiple cases that housed joints from poultry and beef.

Related Tags

Egyptian Collections Egypt Tombs Graves Meat Preservation Methods Preserved Specimens Museums Museums And Collections Nyc

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Added By

lukefater

Edited By

ickaimp, GardinersBay

  • ickaimp
  • GardinersBay

Published

September 17, 2019

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Sources
  • https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/555906
  • https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/11/18/246002182/meat-mummies-how-ancient-egyptians-prepared-feasts-for-afterlife
  • https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/food-in-museums
Ancient Egyptian Beef Shoulder
1000 5th Ave
New York, New York, 10028
United States
40.779166, -73.962928
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