Still, life or still life in Art History already existed as a form of representation before being classified as such.
The earliest known still lifes belong to Ancient Egypt. Still, life's already adorned the interior of the tombs at this time (within larger scenes, which could well be considered as antecedents of the so-called "genre scenes"). Objects related to food and home life were believed to be real in the afterlife, arranged for the dead to use.
The fear of Egyptian man to run out of food crossed the threshold of death, which was reflected in the funeral aspect.
In the writing of the hieroglyphic reliefs on the offering tables, on the walls of their tombs, invocation formulas can be read so that the deceased would not lack the daily food for the "Ka" when he physically disappeared.
This fact of feeding the deceased was so important that, according to Egyptian morality, it was considered a serious offence not to provide the necessary food to their peers or the gods
Thus in chapter 125 of the Book of the Dead, before the great god of justice and of the dead, Osiris, the deceased would be admitted among the "justified", the "just of voice" (designates the condition of the deceased who passes with the successful trial of the trial before the court of Osiris), if he confessed with his own voice, using a formula known as "negative confession", that is, declarations of innocence that he made before the gods of the court in order to justify his personal actions, that he would never have committed the offences that Egyptian morality considered serious. Among the requirements for the verdict to be favourable, is the explicit allusion to this lack:
(...) I did not decrease the food offerings in the temples. I have not destroyed the loaves of the gods. I have not taken the food from the spirits ... I did not decrease the food supplies. "
And in a very explicit way, he continues confessing:
(...) I did not snatch the milk from the children's mouths. "
(milk was considered essential in food)
The number of offerings and funeral banquet scenes that appear in their tombs, in which diners are represented sitting at tables full of provisions, allow us to observe that for the Egyptians, food was not a mere biological necessity. In fact, a deceased did not appear to be well supplied until he had at least not on his offering list:
10 kinds of different meats
5 kinds of birds
16 kinds of bread and cakes,
6 kinds of wine
4 types of beer (very important in your diet)
11 fruit
and all kinds of sweet things
The beer offering, along with bread and onions, considered the staple foods, was a must.
Chapter 79 of the Pyramid Texts tells us:
"... I receive the offerings that come from my altars, I drink beer during twilight."
"You who give bread to Ptah, O great one who lives in the Great Abode, give me bread, give me a beer."
All the funerary scenes allow us, therefore, to approach a very varied diet, whose representation could be considered as the oldest antecedent of still lifes or still lifes.
