This article about drunkenness in ancient Egypt consists of some text and pictures taken from a much longer article that was published in a magazine in 1875. The article was in general about the history of caricature, which goes way back. Apparently some excessive drinking took place long ago in Egypt. In any event, charges of such were made in 1875, with evidential pictures and all. —fadedpages.com

Egyptian servants conveying home their masters from a carouse.

That the ancient Egyptians were a jovial people who sat long at the wine we might infer from the caricatures which have been discovered in Egypt, if we did not know it from other sources of information. Representations have been found of every part of the process of wine-making, from the planting of the vineyard to the storing away of the wine jars. In the valuable works of Sir Gardner Wilkinson many of these curious pictures are given: the vineyard and its trellis-work; men frightening away the birds with slings; a vineyard with a water tank for irrigation; the grape harvest; baskets full of grapes covered with leaves; kids browsing upon the vines; trained monkeys gathering grapes; the wine-press in operation; men pressing grapes by the natural process of treading; pouring the wine into jars; and rows of jars put away for future use. The same laborious author favors us with ancient Egyptian caricatures which serve to show that wine was a creature as capable of abuse thirty centuries ago as it is now.

Too late with the basin.

Pictures of similar character are not unfrequent upon the ancient frescoes, and many of them are far more extravagant than this, exhibiting men dancing wildly, standing upon their heads, and riotously fighting. From Sir Gardner Wilkinson's disclosures we may reasonably infer that the arts of debauchery have received little additions during the last three thousand years. Even the seductive cocktail is not modern. The ancient Egyptians imbibed stimulants to excite an appetite for wine, and munched the biting cabbage leaf for the same purpose. Beer in several varieties was known to them also; veritable beer, made of barley and a bitter herb; beer so excellent that the dainty Greek travelers commended it as a drink only inferior to wine. Even the Egyptian ladies did not always resist the temptation of so many modes of intoxication. Nor did they escape the caricaturist's pencil.

This unfortunate lady, as Sir Gardner conjectures, after indulging in potations deep of the renowned Egyptian wine, had been suddenly overtaken by the consequences, and had called for assistance too late. Egyptian satirists did not spare the ladies, and they aimed their shafts at the same foibles that have called forth so many efforts of pencil and pen in later times. Whenever, indeed, we look closely into ancient life we are struck with the similarity of the daily routine to that of our own time. Every detail of social life is imperishably recorded upon the monuments of ancient Egypt, even to the tone and style and mishaps of a fashionable party.

Warning - This information has been transcribed from a source that is well over 100 years old. It may be incorrect or outdated in some cases. It is also possible that errors were made during the transcription process. This information is being made available for entertainment purposes only.