Fish in Ancient Egypt
On the left are listed all fish documented from excavations in Egypt: the statistics for Elephantine shows the fish bones found at one specific multi-period site (after Boessneck 1988: 118-133).
fish hooks | fishing with the net
| Name of Fish | Quality of meat | fish bones found at Elephantine, cemetery | fish bones found at Elephantine, temple of Satet |
| bichir/polypterus bichir | very good | ||
| mormyrus caschive and mormyrus kannume | moderately, fat meat | 3 | 4 |
| mormyrops anguilloides | moderately, fat meat | 88 | |
| gnathonemus cyprinoides | moderately | ||
| hyperopisus bebe | moderately, fat meat | 2 | |
| hydrocyon forskali (= hydrocinus forskali) | very good, but with many bones | 25 | 95 |
| alestes dentex and alestes baremose | many bones | 43 | |
| disticodus niloticus | good, but many bones | 3 | 4 |
| citharinus citharus and citharinus latus | moderately good, but with many bones | ||
| barbus bynni | popular feeding fish | ||
| labeo niloticus, labeo horie, labeo coubie labeo forskalii | moderately good | 23 | 213 |
| clarias lazera (=clarias gairepinus) clarias anguillaris heterobranchus longifilis and heterobranchus bidorsalis | enjoyable, often rotten and wet taste | 4 | 40 |
| eutropius niloticus | edible | ||
| schilbe mystus | edible | ||
| nile Catfish or hog catfish/bagrus docmac and bagrus bayad | good | 158 | 4483 |
| auchenoglanis occidentalis | moderately good | 20 | 558 |
| chrysichthys auratus and chrysichthys rueppelli | moderately good | ||
| synodontis schall | moderately good, dry meat | ||
| synodontis batensoda | moderately good | ||
| synodontis membranaceus | moderately good | 44 | 112 |
| synodontis serratus | moderately good | 1 | 16 |
| synodontis frontosus | moderately good | 1 | |
| synodontis sorex | moderately good | 6 | |
| malapterurus electricus | enjoyable | ||
| mugil capito (=liza ramada) and mugil cephalus | popular feeding fish, strong meat | ||
| Nile perch/lates niloticus | perfect | 203 | 1923 |
| tilapia nilotica (=oreochromis niloticus) and tilapia galilaea (=sarotherodon) | very good | 9 | |
| tetrodon fahaka | good, but needs special preparation because his gonads contains poison | 3 | |
| sparus aurata | perfect | ||
| morone punctatus (=dicentrarchus punctatus) |
very good |
||
| johnius hololepidotus (=argyrosomus regius = sciaena aquila) | perfect |
Copyright © 2000 University College London. All rights reserved.