Abstract
We propose that the Tri-Lobed Disc excavated from the Tomb of Prince Sabu (about 3000 BC, First Dynasty) was used in brewing beer as a mash rake to mix and even out the mixture of grains and hot water in a fairly big mash tun. Two observations which support this idea are presented in Section 1, and why the Disc works efficiently in mashing is explained in Section 2. We also propose in Section 3 our idea about how the Tri-Lobed Disc was made, and actually made its metal model to experiment and observe the flow around the Disc. About a would-be big “royal” mash tun of Prince Sabu is discussed in Section 4, and as a by-product of searching for any remains of ancient Egyptian mash tuns, we uncover in Section 5 that the large basins at the Sun Temple of Nyuserre (about 2400 BC, Fifth Dynasty) were such remains for ritual beer brewing. This reinterpretation succeeds in explaining almost all of their functions.
Highlights
The disc-shaped artefact, aka the Egyptian Tri-Lobed Disc Figure 1, was excavated from the Mastaba of Prince Sabu (son of Pharaoh Anedjib, First Dynasty (c.3150-2890 BC)) by Walter Bryan Emery in 1936 (Emery, 1949)
We propose that the Tri-Lobed Disc excavated from the Tomb of Prince Sabu was used in brewing beer as a mash rake to mix and even out the mixture of grains and hot water in a fairly big mash tun
About a would-be big “royal” mash tun of Prince Sabu is discussed in Section 4, and as a by-product of searching for any remains of ancient Egyptian mash tuns, we uncover in Section 5 that the large basins at the Sun Temple of Nyuserre were such remains for ritual beer brewing
Summary
The disc-shaped artefact, aka the Egyptian Tri-Lobed Disc Figure 1, was excavated from the Mastaba of Prince Sabu (son of Pharaoh Anedjib, First Dynasty (c.3150-2890 BC)) by Walter Bryan Emery in 1936 (Emery, 1949). One can see votive objects consisting of stone or pottery vessels, flint or copper implements, ivory boxes, bones of two oxen and arrows; the fragments of the Tri-Lobed Disc is placed in the center of this chamber, described as “Fragments of metasiltstone bowl” (Emery, 1949). The character of these objects is that almost all of them are related to “foods” dedicated for the afterlife of Prince Sabu. We hope this article can revive the importance of “ritual brewing” in the history of ancient Egypt, in particular in the third and fourth millennia BC
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