Unearthing the Ancient Roots of Vegetarianism

The vegetarian diet has become very popular around the world over the last decades. However, the history of this lifestyle and its foundation on the respect for animal life and the planet has its roots in the Indus River valley and ancient Greece.

Vegetarianism has been known about and practiced since ancient times. Although ancient people are sometimes depicted with loads of meat on their dinner tables, this image may be based more on artistic creativity than reality. In fact, it seems that humanity in general has only eaten larger quantities of meat for the last 1,000 years. Before then, the consumption of meat was less popular. This could have been due in part to problems associated with hunting. For example, in desert countries like Egypt it would have been extremely difficult to produce enough meat for the whole population. Many ancient people also had a different worldview – one which was largely forgotten by later generations.

Eating large quantities of meat may only have occurred in the last 1,000 years (public domain)