# Ancient Egyptian Question
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-egyptian-question/595387
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 6, 2011, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-egyptian-question/595387 "2011-09-06T14:36:25Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2011, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-egyptian-question/595387/1 "2011-09-06T14:36:25Z")
Back in the days of the Pharaohs, there were large numbers of people living and working in Egypt. Assuming they used fire to cook their food, as well as for more industrial purposes, they needed a ready source of burnable carbon.
Having been to Egypt I can tell you that there aren’t a lot of forests around these days, although wood could have been plentiful at the time of the Pharaohs.
If you were wealthy you could send out servants to gather wood for burning, but how did the average person get fuel for their personal use? Was coal or oil abundant enough to use as a ready source of carbon?
---
### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2011, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-egyptian-question/595387/2 "2011-09-06T14:40:57Z")
Beyond wood, there was always animal dung, and the ancient Egyptians used both as fuel.
---
### Author:  [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2011, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-egyptian-question/595387/3 "2011-09-06T14:45:38Z")
I believe coal and oil weren’t extensively used until a lot later. Dung fires would have been commonly used, you can make a merry blaze from dried camel turds. I think bundled reeds were used to make torches.
---
### Author:  [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2011, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-egyptian-question/595387/4 "2011-09-06T14:56:56Z")
Ahh dung.
I had assumed they would be using dung to fertilize their fields in order to grow food for themselves and their livestock, but dried dung could certainly be used as a fuel source if there was a dearth of wood… and I assume dung would have been fairly plentiful.
Thanks!
---
### Author:  [@wmfellows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wmfellows)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2011, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-egyptian-question/595387/5 "2011-09-06T15:03:53Z")
> [@Alka\_Seltzer](#):
>
> I believe coal and oil weren’t extensively used until a lot later. Dung fires would have been commonly used, you can make a merry blaze from dried camel turds. I think bundled reeds were used to make torches.
Not camels though, that comes many centuries later. Donkey, sheep, etc.
> [@dolphinboy](#):
>
> Ahh dung.
>
> I had assumed they would be using dung to fertilize their fields in order to grow food for themselves and their livestock, but dried dung could certainly be used as a fuel source if there was a dearth of wood… and I assume dung would have been fairly plentiful.
>
> Thanks!
They had the Nile flood, so the need for poo fertliser wasn’t there.
Of course, I would guess that 5000 odd years ago, there were more trees.
---
### Author:  [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2011, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-egyptian-question/595387/6 "2011-09-06T15:37:55Z")
[This PDF chapter of a textbook on ancient Egypt](http://media.wiley.com/product_ancillary/88/14051114/DOWNLOAD/ITTC03.pdf) states that “[c]ow manure was used for fuel, while bird droppings collected from dovecotes may have been used as fertilizer in gardens.”
The livestock dung excreted during grazing on the stubble of recently harvested fields helped fertilize them.
Dried cow dung is still a major fuel source in many developing countries. Many’s the stone or concrete wall I’ve seen in India that was completely covered with round cow patties drying in the sun prior to being used to stoke the cooking fire.
---
### Author:  [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2011, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-egyptian-question/595387/7 "2011-09-06T16:15:30Z")
Oh, and reading a little further along in my abovelinked cite, I see that it says that acacia wood “was also processed to make charcoal”.
My guess is that charcoal would have been more common in industrial uses and that domestic fuel would have been mostly or exclusively cow dung.
---
### Author:  [@Bordesley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bordesley)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2011, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-egyptian-question/595387/8 "2011-09-06T16:22:32Z")
In archaeological digs, I have read that carbonized straw has been found adjacent to kilns.
---
### Author:  [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2011, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-egyptian-question/595387/9 "2011-09-06T16:27:41Z")
> [@wmfellows](#):
>
> Not camels though, that comes many centuries later. Donkey, sheep, etc.
Good point.
> [@Kimstu](#):
>
> My guess is that charcoal would have been more common in industrial uses and that domestic fuel would have been mostly or exclusively cow dung.
IIRC, to smelt a quantity of ore you need several times it’s weight in charcoal.
---
### Author:  [@LunarPlexus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LunarPlexus)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2011, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-egyptian-question/595387/10 "2011-09-06T20:40:50Z")
> [@Alka\_Seltzer](#):
>
> Good point.
>
> IIRC, to smelt a quantity of ore you need several times it’s weight in charcoal.
OTOH, if you’ve ever smelt dung, you know that all that’s required is standing downwind…
---
### Author:  [@blanketman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blanketman)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2011, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-egyptian-question/595387/11 "2011-09-08T11:52:31Z")
in those days people used dried animal dung as a fuel to burn (camels, cows, sheep).
---
### Author:  [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2011, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-egyptian-question/595387/12 "2011-09-08T12:23:53Z")
> [@dolphinboy](#):
>
> Ahh dung.
>
> I had assumed they would be using dung to fertilize their fields in order to grow food for themselves and their livestock
In Egypt, the annual Nile flood did a nice job of re-fertilizing the fields.
In other places where rivers didn’t provide such services, utilization of animal dung for fuel did tend to diminish soil fertility over time (along with other factors).
---
### Author:  [@gerthearcejor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gerthearcejor)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2011, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-egyptian-question/595387/13 "2011-09-21T04:21:57Z")
[always cool online casino](http://onlinecasino78.weebly.com)
[online car insurance quotes](http://free-car-insurance-quote-save60.weebly.com/)