AGROS - EoS Project

📣📣🍺🏺Huge congratulations to AGROS - EoS Project #PhD Victoria Debrus on her brilliant #posterpresentation "Ancient brews in New Bags: Historical Techniques in Fermentation-Driven Beverage Processing"!🏺🍺🎉🎊 She presented her research at the 1st International Conference on Fermented Foods (#ICFF25) hosted at the NOI Techpark in #Bolzano #Italy. Many thanks to the organizing committee for making this conference a success!: Kashika Arora, Raffaella Di Cagno, Olga Nikoloudaki, PhD, Andrea Polo, Ali Zein Alabiden Tlais, Matthias Fill, Sandra Fleischmann, Lisa Geier, Federica Pompeo #Micro4FoodLaboratory #NOITechpark #ICOFF #InternationalCentreOnFoodFermentations #fuqqa #fermented #ancient #medieval #Egyptian #beverages #learningfromthepast #brewinginnovation 🏺🍺💡👩🔬 Fien Guns Mennat-Allah El Dorry Frédéric Leroy Frits Heinrich FOST - Interdisciplinary Historical Food Studies Research Group of Industrial Microbiology and Food Biotechnology #ExcellenceOfScience #EoS Research Foundation Flanders - FWO F.R.S. - FNRS

#Applications are #open for the #WinterSchool Commensality and Cultural Heritage in the Middle East and Its Diasporas! The teaching team, including #FOST's own Frits Heinrich & Annette Hansen, look forward to meeting you there! 🫘 🍞 🌽 🍇 🫓 🥙 #Apply here! 👉: https://lnkd.in/ezxJPmMw 📍University of Groningen 📅26-30 January 2026 #foodhistory #food #archaeology #culturalheritage #foodheritage Heather Sharkey (University of Pennsylvania) Karène Sanchez Summerer (University of Groningen) Vrije Universiteit Brussel VUB Research FOST - Interdisciplinary Historical Food Studies

Two inspiring days at the Conference on Food Microbiology organised by the Belgian Society for Food Microbiology , where I had the chance to present a poster about my research on the recreation of the medieval fermented beverage known as “Fuqqa”. 🍻✨AGROS - EoS Project It was a great opportunity to share insights, exchange ideas, and connect with colleagues.

📣📣Shout out to our speakers on Tuesday September 9th at the AGROS - EoS Project workshop "Their Daily Bread? Interdisciplinary approaches to Cereal- and Pulse-Based Foods in Egypt from the Saites to the Byzantines (ca. 700 BC - AD 700)." 🌾 🫛 🫘 🫓 Frits Heinrich (FOST - Interdisciplinary Historical Food Studies) presented “New insights into the (anti)nutritional and isotopic properties of raw and prepared grain products through the AGROS project”, investigating the (anti)nutritional profiles of #ancient #cereals and #pulses as a part of the AGROS - EoS Project and their importance in #reconstructing #ancient #diet and #nutrition. Amira Ali (University of Liège) presented “Phytates in cereals and legumes: modern ethnographic vs. ancient Karanis”, where she discussed method development for measuring #phytate in ancient #cereals and #pulses. Huong Tran Thuy Pham (University of Liège) presented “Genotypic variation in the neurotoxin β-ODAP and its α-isomer in modern grass pea: a comparison with an archaeological specimen”, exploring the #variation in the levels of the neurotoxin β-ODAP in different varieties of #Lathyrus species #crops. Two papers discussed the processing and preparation of different types of cereal and pulse-based #foodstuffs. Daan Smets (KU Leuven)'s “Milling in Graeco-Roman Egypt: a flour(ishing) business” discussed the different kinds of flour and milling technologies present in Graeco-Roman Egypt.   Maria Mossakowska-Gaubert (CNRS) presented “Cereals and monks”, discussing the #Greek and #Coptic vocabulary used for different types of #bread in #monastic #communities. Two papers discussed the importance of #cereals and #pulses in #religious contexts in #Egypt. Frédéric Mougenot (Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille) presented “Renenutet and the symbolic importance of cereals in the religion of late temples”, highlighting how the #cobra goddess #Renenutet protected the #harvest and #cereals as #treasures.   René Preys' (Université de Namur) lecture “The offering of bread in the temples of the Graeco-Roman period” discussed bread offerings present in #templetexts and showing that the gods needed #food and #bread in their ideal #afterlife.   Two papers discussed #recreating and #rediscovering the #food #biotechnology of #ancient and #medieval #Egyptian recipes. Christian Abi Khalil (Research Group of Industrial Microbiology and Food Biotechnology) and Daan Smets (KU Leuven) presented “Sourdough breads from Egypt to Rome: exploring pulse flour fermentation dynamics inspired by recipes from Pliny the Elder’s Historia Naturalis”, where #GraecoRoman #sourdough #breads rose again.   Victoria Debrus (Research Group of Industrial Microbiology and Food Biotechnology) and Mennat-Allah El Dorry (Ain Shams University & The American University in Cairo) presented “Brewing like an (medieval) Egyptian”, where they brought the #medieval #Egyptian #beer #fuqqa to life.

📣📣Shout out to our speakers on Monday September 8th at the AGROS - EoS Project workshop "Their Daily Bread? Interdisciplinary approaches to Cereal- and Pulse-Based Foods in Egypt from the Saites to the Byzantines (ca. 700 BC - AD 700)." 🌾 🫛 🫘 🫓 Damien Agut-Labordère (CNRS - UMR 7041) & Nico Dogaer (CNRS - UMR 7041; #MarieCurie #postdoctoral #fellow) presented their paper “The role of barley and emmer wheat in the economy of Persian era ‘Ayn Manâwir”, especially emphasizing the importance of #barley in the #KharghaOasis during the #Persian period. Marie-Pierre Chaufray (Ecole practique des Hautes Etudes - UMR 8546) presented “Eating in an arid environment: the example of travellers and inhabitants of stopping-places and mining sites in the Eastern Desert in the Ptolemaic period”, also on behalf of co-authors Laura Aguer (IFAO - Institut français d'archéologie orientale) and Charlène Bouchaud (Museum national d'Histoire naturelle / CNRS), also showing how #barley played an important role as a crop in marginal environments. Annette Hansen (FOST - Interdisciplinary Historical Food Studies Vrije Universiteit Brussel) presented “Taking the pulse on grain crops at Karanis: investigating cereals and pulses from the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology archaeobotanical collection”, discussing preliminary results of the first systematic study of the #Karanis archaeobotanical collection held at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, emphasizing the range and complexity of #cereal and #pulse crops and their mixes at the site during the #GraecoRoman and #Byzantine periods. Laura Motta & Tyler Johnson (Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor) presented “Grain stores at Karanis: understanding the abandonment of an agricultural town”, showcasing the initial results of their rich and detailed #3Dreconstruction of the archaeological site of #Karanis, highlighting the location of where #archaeological and #archaeobotanical samples from #storage contexts came from in the site and how the evidence points to a more gradual abandonment in the site than previously thought. Many thanks to our funding bodies: AGROS - EoS Project #ExcellenceOfScience Research Foundation Flanders - FWO F.R.S. - FNRS; #MarieSklowdowskaCurie #project FARE (Fiscal reform in Egypt: From the Achaemenids to the Ptolemies), #Funded by the #EU

Looking back on a successful AGROS - EoS Project workshop "Their Daily Bread? Interdisciplinary approaches to Cereal- and Pulse-Based Foods in Egypt from the Saites to the Byzantines (ca. 700 BC - AD 700)." on 8-9 September in beautiful #Leuven #Belgium!🌾 🫛 🫘 🫓 We thank our fantastic speakers who delivered brilliant papers treating cereals, pulses, and the foods made from them from all disciplinary perspectives and broadening our view of what #ancient and #historical #Egyptian #foodsystems, #economies, and #diets were like across time from the #OldKingdom, #Persian, #GraecoRoman, #Byzantine, and #Medieval periods and transported us across #Egypt, from the #KhargaOasis, the #EasternDesert, and the #GraecoRoman town of #Karanis in the #Fayyum! Many thanks to our excellent speakers: Damien Agut-Labordère (CNRS - UMR 7041) & Nico Dogaer (CNRS - UMR 7041; #MarieCurie #postdoctoral #fellow); Marie-Pierre Chaufrey (Ecole practique des Hautes Etudes - UMR 8546); Annette Hansen (FOST - Interdisciplinary Historical Food Studies); Laura Motta & Tyler Johnson (Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor); Frits Heinrich (FOST - Interdisciplinary Historical Food Studies); Amira Ali (University of Liège / Research Group of Industrial Microbiology and Food Biotechnology); Huong Tran Thuy Pham (University of Liège); Daan Smets (KU Leuven); Maria Mossakowska-Gaubert (CNRS, UMR 8167); Frédéric Mougenot (Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille), René Preys (Université de Namur), Christian Abi Khalil (Research Group of Industrial Microbiology and Food Biotechnology), Victoria Debrus (Research Group of Industrial Microbiology and Food Biotechnology), and Mennat-Allah El Dorry (Ain Shams University & The American University in Cairo)! Many thanks to the excellent organizing committee of our colleagues from the KU Leuven, Université de Namur, FOST - Interdisciplinary Historical Food Studies & Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and CNRS: Gert Baetens, Arnaud Delhove, Nico Dogaer, Annette Hansen, Frits Heinrich, René Preys, Alexa Rickert, Daan Smets, and Katelijn Vandorpe! Many thanks to our funding bodies: AGROS - EoS Project #ExcellenceOfScience Research Foundation Flanders - FWO F.R.S. - FNRS; #MarieSklowdowskaCurie #project FARE (Fiscal reform in Egypt: From the Achaemenids to the Ptolemies), #Funded by the #EU

🎉 🎉 🐟 🐠 Huge congratulations to AGROS - EoS Project #postdoc Dr. Alexa Rickert (Université de Namur) on her latest publication "Der Fänger in der Dunkelheit: Fische in den ökonomischen Prozessionen der griechisch-römischen Tempel Ägyptens", which is featured in the new book "Tempel, Tiere, Sternenhimmel - Studien zur altägyptischen Religion und Wissenschaft für Christian Leitz. Teil 1: Tempel. Teil 2: Tiere und Sternenhimmel". Read more here 👉: https://lnkd.in/eUSSeQzY 🎉 🎉 🐟 🐠 #fish #GraecoRoman #Egypt #templetexts #foodhistory #foodscience #foodeconomy #Egyptology #learningfromthepast AGROS - EoS Project #ExcellenceofScience Research Foundation Flanders - FWO F.R.S. - FNRS Harrassowitz Verlag

Good morning 🌞🌞 and get your day started with a fresh cuppa ☕☕ and a complete breakfast with AGROS - EoS Project’s  latest publication: “Porridge in Graeco-Roman Egypt and Beyond: A reconsideration of Egyptian Зwš/ỉwš(š)” by our own Dr. Gert Baetens (KU Leuven) and Dr. Alexa Rickert (Université de Namur). 🫛🫛🌾🌾🥣🥣 Check it out in the latest issue of Chronique d’Egypt 199 (issue 198)! Many congratulations to Gert and Alexa! AGROS - EoS Project is serving the breakfast of champions! 🏆🏆 #GraecoRoman #Egypt #porridge #foodhistory #learningfromthepast #ExcellenceofScience F.R.S. - FNRS Research Foundation Flanders - FWO