Egypt and Cyrenaica
In Egypt and Cyrenaica, the evidence is thin, mainly because of the concentration on material from earlier periods by archaeozoologists. It comes essentially from two sites, neither unfortunately being in the Nile Valley. Benghazi in Cyrenaica (Barker 1979) had a variable pattern through time, but usually had a predominantly sheep and goat meat diet. Barker (1979, 36-7) interprets the 3rd century deposits as reflecting a period of instability in the province, when nomadic raids may have cut off supplies of sheep and goats to the town, with the consequence that local beef and pork temporarily formed the main meat resources. If this was the case, the sheep/goat dominated assemblages represent the normal situation for the town, to which it returned after the events of the 3rd century.
The Egyptian sites also have very high sheep/goat percentages, up to almost 100% in some cases. All the Egyptian sites are in the Eastern Desert rather than the Nile Valley, and as such form an interesting but highly specialized grouping. Food for the forts and settlements in the desert probably had to be imported, either in whole or in part. There are signs that transport animals (camels, horses, mules and donkeys) were eaten when no longer capable or required for their primary purpose (Leguilloux 1997; Veen & Hamilton-Dyer 1998). The sites on the Red Sea coast, such as Berenike (Van Neer 1997), probably had greater access to local resources, especially fish, but they, too, required importation of meat-bearing animals. Several of these sites had military phases, and it is notable that their bone assemblages often have high percentages of pig bones (Van Neer 1997). This seems to have been a local dietary preference by the army that can possibly be related to high levels of pork consumption on military sites elsewhere (see Military diet). It certainly appears to have been a significant element of differentiation from the usual mutton and goat meat diet of the non-military community.
One of the interesting aspects of the diet in earlier, dynastic Egypt is the status of pig. Due to prevailing environmental conditions, it is thought that pig would not have been herded in any significant numbers outside the Delta and other fertile areas such as the Fayum (Hecker 1982). Depictions are rare, and there is a 5th century BC reference by Herodotus (II, 47) to pig being regarded as unclean, but eaten on ritual occasions (Boessneck 1988, 76-8). However, New Kingdom and earlier sites do have pig bones, often in high percentages (Hecker 1982), and it may be the case that pork formed a significant element in the meat supply until late dynastic times, when it declined to the levels visible in other regions of the Near East. A factor in its decline could be human population pressure, since porcine and human diets are very similar, with the consequence that competition for resources could have led to the dedication of fertile land for human foodstuff production rather than for herding pigs.