The world's oldest stew has been discovered in a newly discovered city in Egypt.

A pot with remains still on the hearth. Clay trays where bread was left to rise in the sun. And all this in a kitchen that no one had set foot in for 2,500 years. As we reported in El Confidencial, the discovery of the Egyptian city of Imet, in the eastern Nile Delta, has astounded archaeologists from the University of Manchester (United Kingdom) and the University of Sadat City (Egypt). They have managed to locate and excavate this Late Egyptian settlement thanks to high-resolution satellite images.

The excavation, carried out in the Tell el-Fara'in area, also known as Tell Nabasha, has not only allowed for the reconstruction of scenes of domestic life in the 4th century BC, but also for the recovery of valuable ritual and funerary objects. "When you pull something like that out of the ground and you're the first person to touch it in 2,500 years, it's a real shock," explained Dr. Nicky Nielsen , project leader, to the BBC.

A dense, prosperous and religious city

The work has revealed that Imet was a prosperous city, with a complex urban infrastructure . The multi-story tower houses, built with thick foundation walls, are rarely found elsewhere in Egypt and point to significant population density. The team also found granaries, animal enclosures, and a large paved area for grain processing, suggesting an active local economy .

The team also found barns, animal pens, and a large paved area for grain processing.

Furthermore, the excavations uncovered a ceremonial road linked to the cult of the cobra goddess Wadjet , as well as a large building with monumental pillars and plaster floors dating from the Ptolemaic period. For Nielsen, this type of architecture highlights the changes in the religious landscapes of Hellenistic Egypt.

Imet's Lost Menu

Among the most surprising artifacts, archaeologists found a clay pot on a hearth in a domestic kitchen. Inside, the well-preserved remains of a fish stew with tilapia bones . Beside it, clay trays used to ferment bread in the sun, all in a narrow alley of one of the excavated dwellings. The collection offers a unique snapshot of daily life two and a half millennia ago.

“This discovery opens new doors to our understanding of urban life, spirituality, and food in the Delta,” Nielsen says. The site has also yielded a valuable collection of religious artifacts. Among them is a green earthenware shabti figurine from the 26th Dynasty, which the ancient Egyptians placed in the tombs of officials to work for them in the afterlife. “ It was their way of escaping work after death,” Nielsen quips.

The Imet site had been partially excavated in the 19th century, but efforts then focused on the temple and cemetery.

The team also recovered a funerary amulet of Harpocrates , the boy god, standing on two crocodiles and crowned by the head of the god Bes , used as protection against disease. Another notable find is a bronze sistrum bearing the twin heads of Hathor , the goddess of music and joy. This copper alloy rattle was used in temple rituals and provides new insights into the spiritual syncretism of the delta.

The Imet site had been partially excavated in the 19th century, but efforts then focused on the temple and cemetery. It is now, thanks to new remote sensing technologies, that it has been possible to map the urban settlement more precisely and begin to reconstruct its history.

“Imet is becoming a key site for rethinking the archaeology of Late Period Egypt ,” Nielsen concludes. “We are beginning to transform our understanding of how people lived, worked, and believed in this region.”

The international team also includes Dr. Diana Nikolova of the University of Liverpool and specialists from various countries. The University of Manchester asserts that its involvement in this type of project continues to rewrite the global narrative of Egypt's forgotten cities , "bringing the ancient Delta back into the spotlight one discovery at a time."