Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Salima Ikram

Salima Ikram is Distinguished University Professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo. Her fieldwork focuses on the role of animals in the ancient Egyptian diet. She currently directs the Darb Ain Amur Survey, in North Kharga, and an excavation in the Valley of the Kings.

Detail from the stela of Mentuwoser, c. 1955 B.C., shows the steward preparing for a feast.

For Ancient Egyptian Pharaohs, Life Was a Banquet, But the Afterlife Was the Greatest Feast of All

Life after death for the Ancient Egyptian elite included lots, and lots, of food