The Vineyard, the Vintage, and the Making of Wine in the Ancient Orient, ^g 



however, have undergone already a stage of development, 

 for the name of the vineyard of the Horus Dja, of the pre- 

 dynastic time, is still simply "Beverage of Horus", or else, 

 "Enclosure of the beverage of Horus". On one of Dja's 

 cyHnders the name is also called "Beverages of the Double 

 {k3) of the enclosure of the beverages of Horus" ^. Commen- 

 cing with the time of king Den, , the vineyards bear in- 



variably the name "Enclosure of the beverages of the body 

 of Horus". 



Viticulture is a sure sign of a higher degree of civiliza- 

 tion, since it required a greater amount of labor than the 

 cultivation of grain and demanded years of patient waiting 

 and tending, until the young shoots had grown up to bear 

 fruit. Irrigation was one of the tasks to which the Egyptian 

 vinedresser had to give much of his time. The gardener 

 "passes the morning watering vegetables, the evening vines" 

 (Pap. Sail. II; Pap. Anast. VII). The Egyptian vineyard is 

 often pictured as having a water-basin. The vines were trained 

 on espaliers or trellis work, which was supported by trans- 

 verse rafters, resting on beautifully carved and painted columns. 

 Rows of columns formed pleasant arcades. The avenues were 

 generally wide enough to permit an easy communication from 

 one end of the vineyard to the other, and yet not too wide; 

 the rays of the sun being kept away from the ground in order 

 that it might retain its moisture. The vine-arbors of a more 

 simple make-up consisted simply of pliable branches, whose 

 ends were placed in the ground, thus forming a large arch. 

 A third way was that of erecting two wooden pillars, whose 

 upper ends were forked, over which a wooden pole was layed. 

 Vinedressers who were less careful, simply allowed the vine- 

 stalks to shoot up without any props, as is seen in an illustra- 

 tion from Beni- Hasan, or else they let them grow up in 

 hedges. Such vines, as were allowed to grow up as bushes, 

 were kept low and required no support. The different modes 



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nk' H^' i>^rS' ~?n- 



iCi V O A/ww\ I V 



Lutz, Viticulture and Brewing. 



