Canadian Egyptologist - Rexine Hummel
Part IV - Sinai Bedouin Meal
At the close of the 2002 season at Ras Budran, the foreign archaeological team was invited to dine at the home of Sheikh Ayyad. Following is the description of this encounter in Rexine’s own words (footnotes are mine).
A hand-drawn map by Greg Mumford [1]
showing the location of Ras Budran.
An Unforgettable Meal in the Sinai Desert[2]
I was working as the ceramicist in the south Sinai desert on the site of an ancient stone fortification called Ras Budran. This site, close to the Red Sea, was used by the ancient Egyptian miners as a camping area to store their boats while they trekked inland to the mountains that held the precious copper and turquoise mines that they sought. The scenery here was spectacular but it was approaching 12 noon and the temperature was nearly fifty degrees centigrade and our thoughts were on the air conditioning back at the hotel. Once again, as he did every day, Ayyad the 75 year old sheikh of the nearby Bedouin village, invited our team for tea. Once again we declined. We were running out of excuses but the truth was we were tired and hot and did not want to lengthen our day in the desert. The Egyptian inspector then told us that we were insulting the sheikh by not accepting and in return we would not get any workers for the next season. Our boss immediately accepted the invitation while the rest of us groaned and complained.[3]
Sheikh Ayyad, a man with two wives and 17 children had built for himself a male-only audience room between his house and the sea. Here he would receive his male guests. Several openings in the limestone walls allowed the sea breezes to flow through creating a pleasant temperature inside. Rugs were placed on the sand floor for us to sit on. We foreign women were considered men-like since we wore trousers and worked with men and therefore were allowed to join the group. After a lengthy ritual of roasting and grinding the coffee beans Ayyad poured the steaming liquid into small cups and served it to us.
We chatted for about an hour using our limited Arabic and the inspector’s limited English. Finally we began thanking him for his hospitality and started to say goodbye. He raised his hands immediately to stop us and announced that dinner was coming soon. This we did not expect but we reluctantly sat down again. One of Ayyad’s adult sons carried in a huge tureen of soup and began serving it into small bowls. I immediately noticed the white blobs floating in the soup and realized that fat was rare in the Bedouin’s diet and they were giving this rare delicacy to us.
Small salads of tomato, cucumber and parsley arrived. Finally two huge trays of rice with chunks of goat meat were carried in, one for the group of Egyptian men and another for the foreigners. The Egyptians wasted no time in beginning; they were particularly skilled in using their fingers to pick up mouthfuls of rice and meat without dropping a grain of rice. Our group froze and looked for any kind of utensil. The lucky ones found soup spoons but the rest of us just sat there. Ayyad, who was sitting beside me, picked up a handful of food and literally stuffed it into my mouth. We were immediately animated and finally joined in eating with our hands. I have to admit the food was delicious. Unfortunately there was one less goat in the flock.[4]
[1] Mumford, G. (2006) Tell Ras Budran (Site 345): Defining Egypt’s Eastern Frontier and Mining Operations in South Sinai during the Late Old Kingdom (Early EB IV/MB I). BASOR 342, (May 2006): 13-67.
[2] Hummel, R. (2022) Stories of My Life. Storyworth, pp. 69-75
[3] I have to say that I (Debborah) did not complain. I had been wanting to accept the invitation for ages, and was super excited to get the chance. I was incredibly curious about his house and his wives.
[4] Zoe McQuinn and I were secretly wondering if the sacrificed goat was the naughty one that had overturned a bucket covering our field notes and ate them a few days before.
