A medium-sized oval basket contained some sycomore fruits, which are smaller than those of the common fig (Ficus carica). The latter was known during the 18th Dynasty onwards and figs have been found in other tombs, but surprisingly they are not reported from Tutankhamun’s.
The sycomore is a tree of warm climates and extends deep into tropical Africa. It is known in Egypt from at least the 1st Dynasty onwards and used to be a common tree to such an extent that the Psalmist recalls the disastrous effect of cold when God ‘destroyed [the Egyptians’] vines with hail and their sycomores with frost’ (Psalm 78:47). Trees were planted near habitations where the fruit was readily available and advantage could be taken of their shade. The heart-shaped leaves are rough to touch and they persist throughout the year, except in cooler regions, where most of them may fall in winter.
The fruits develop all over the trunk and branches in large clusters. Technically each is called a syconium and it has an internal cavity lined by tiny florets and with a hole at the top of the fruit. In through the hole squeezes the pollinating wasp, which crawls around inside laying eggs in some of the florets and pollinating others at the same time. After some five weeks the young wasps hatch, wingless males first, followed by winged females, with whom they mate before the latter leave the cavity via holes eaten in the top of the fruit by the males. The whole life-cycle of the fig is remarkably adapted to the insect as the fruits ripen at the same time as the insects hatch. Unfortunately the presence of the dead male wasps makes them inedible, so to make them palatable
A branch of the fig tree Ficus sycomorus.
Sycomore growers in ancient times used to clamber over the trees cutting each young fruit. It was once thought that this was done to liberate the insects, as the cut fruit was then without dead ones inside. However, recent research has shown that the cutting of the exterior causes the syconium to develop in a few days instead of weeks, thereby short-circuiting the insect’s life-cycle. In fact, the full story is a complicated one, with several species of wasp being involved. Modern varieties of sycomore fig, however, are self-fertilised.
Egyptian sycomore fig trees live to a great age and become massive in size. Often they were cut for timber and their soft wood was widely used for the construction of coffins (sarcophagi) and general woodwork in Ancient Egypt. So far none of its wood has been identified from the tomb of Tutankhamun. Note that the sycomore fig should not be confused with sycamore, the name that is applied to species of Acer and Platanus.
World History
