Taking full advantage of the abundance of avian life in their country, the ancient Egyptians' diet was enriched by birds, especially delicious and highly nutritious migratory waterfowl. Just how plentiful and comparatively easy water birds are to obtain in Egypt can be seen from the fact that from 1979 to 1986, by a conservative estimate, between 260,000 and 374,000 of them were taken annually without firearms in the Nile Delta alone, using essentially ancient technology. Moreover, there is sound ecological and other evidence indicating that four or five thousand years ago, the available wildlife was far richer.
By the middle of the first dynasty, as shown by a representation on a gaming disc found in the tomb (no. 3035) of the chancellor Hemaka at Saqqara, and now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, fowlers had perfected the technique of employing large, rectangular clapnets to capture huge numbers of these migrants. Most of this hunting presumably took place in the then-extensive swamplands of the Delta, but probably also in the Faiyum (El-Faiyum). Those birds not immediately killed when caught were fattened, even force-fed, and kept in a semidomesticated state until needed for food or sacrifice.Members of the aristocracy maintained, as did individual temples, substantial stocks of poultry on their domains. These birds had considerable economic importance. The vast repertoire of scenes from daily life decorating the walls of tomb-chapels belonging to the elite from the Old Kingdom onward routinely include the activities of busy poultry yards and aviaries. These places are shown teeming with various kinds of ducks, geese, cranes, and doves, and frequently have captions giving the birds' names and numbers. The famous fifth dynasty mastaba (tomb 60) of the high- ranking court official Tiy at Saqqara, for example, is noteworthy for its wide assortment of vibrant aviculture and fowling compositions. Such birds must have been so esteemed as table fare, that tomb owners evidently wished to eat them throughout eternity. Generous numbers of waterfowl are carried as offerings by bearers featured in tomb-chapels and temples spanning all eras, they appear among the piles of victuals heaped before the deceased, are put on funerary tables, are named in their extensive menus for the beyond, and are mentioned in temple offering lists. There is some textual evidence from the New Kingdom that birds were affordably priced in ancient Egypt. However, the specially raised and force-fed poultry on view in tomb scenes were undoubtedly reserved for the wealthy. Curiously, the eggs seem to be absent as food in funerary contexts, probably owing to a taboo.
When images are carefully executed and paint is still extant, it is sometimes possible to recognize the precise species depicted. Some of these fowl also appear as standard hieroglyphs. Frequently identified table birds are bean goose (Anser fabalis) or graylag goose (Anser anser), r-? and sr; white- fronted goose (Anser albifrons and Anser erythropus), jrp; Egyptian goose (Alopochen ae.gyptia.cus), smn; ruddy shelduck (Tadoma ferruginea), bsbs?; pintail (Anas acuta), zt and hp; turtle dove (Streptopelia turtur) and palm dove (Streptopelia senegalensis), mnwt and 'by, common crane (Grus grus), i^yt, 'jw, and g^, and demoiselle crane (Anfhropoides virgo), wd\ Other valuable birds sometimes kept for food include swan (Cygnus sp.), di-idn?; wigeon (Anas penelope), wsyt; European teal (Anas crecca), probably sr and s; quail (Cotumix cotumix), p'rt;
coot (Fulica atra), wh't; and possibly pigeons (Columba sp.). Pigeon cotes, a customary feature of the Upper Egyptian landscape well into the present century, probably did not exist during dynastic times, and are first attested in the archaeological record during the Greco-Roman period.
The impression one derives from pictorial and written sources of which kinds of poultry were viewed as desirable for dining is confirmed through zooarchaeological studies on bones from cemeteries and settlement sites. Burials of well-to-do people often had mummified victuals. A sumptuous funerary repast prepared for Tutankhamun during the eighteenth dynasty, found near his tomb (no. 62) in the Valley of the Kings, consisted of one brant goose (Branta bemicia), one white-fronted goose, two bean geese, four teals, two shovelers (Anas clypeata), one gadwall (Anas strepera), and two ducks that were not identified. In the intact eighteenth dynasty tomb of the architect Kha at Thebes (tomb 8), the deceased was interred with a large amphora filled with eviscerated poultry, reportedly preserved with salt. Theban tomb paintings show birds being processed in this manner and stored in similar tall jars.
Although Egyptian avicultuialists doubtless experienced some success breeding these birds, owing to the sheer abundance of waterfowl in the wild and ease of obtaining them, there was not a strong incentive for captive propagation. Nevertheless, the growing demand for table geese eventually led to the complete domestication of a goose, probably the graylag, by the time of the New Kingdom. The Egyptian goose occasionally appears in avi-cultural scenes, but only during the Old and Middle Kingdoms. By the early eighteenth dynasty, this large indigenous duck had risen in distinction, becoming sacrosanct to Amun, the powerful god of the city of Thebes. It was surely for this reason that this species was kept as a pet by some Theban notables, and is displayed quietly sitting near them in their decorated tomb-chapels, even accompanying them on fowling expeditions, despite the bird's infamously aggressive behavior. Otherwise, domestic poultry evidently played a small role in Egyptian religious belief.
Today's most characteristic farmyard bird, the chicken (or red jungle fowl. Callus gallus), was unknown to the ancient Egyptians until the nineteenth dynasty, and then only as a marvel imported from Southeast Asia by way of the Near East. The chicken did not become commonplace along the banks of the Nile until at least the Ptolemaic period. Classical writers, such as Diodorus Siculus (I, 74), in the middle of the first century BCE, mention the large-scale artificial incubation of poultry eggs by Egyptian avi-culturalists. Presumably, the practice of constructing hatcheries first developed during the Late period. It is also possible that the eggs of other species, such as the sacred ibis (Tlireskiomis aethiopicus), were incubated to supply the popular and burgeoning animal-cult industry with birds used as votive offerings. The earliest archaeological evidence for these installations comes from the sixth century CE. Hatcheries like this were still being used in some small villages of Upper Egypt as recently as the late 1950s.
Recent Pages:
· Philae
· Piety in Ancient Egypt
· Piramesse
· Tell el-Maskhuta (Pithom)
· Second Intermediate Period
· Piya (744–714 BC)
· Plutarch (c.46-120 CE)
 |
| A mixed flock ofwaterbirds being trapped with clap-nets, including some pintails and European teal. A wall painting in the tomb of the twelfth dynasty nomarch Khnumhotep III at Beni Hasan. |
When images are carefully executed and paint is still extant, it is sometimes possible to recognize the precise species depicted. Some of these fowl also appear as standard hieroglyphs. Frequently identified table birds are bean goose (Anser fabalis) or graylag goose (Anser anser), r-? and sr; white- fronted goose (Anser albifrons and Anser erythropus), jrp; Egyptian goose (Alopochen ae.gyptia.cus), smn; ruddy shelduck (Tadoma ferruginea), bsbs?; pintail (Anas acuta), zt and hp; turtle dove (Streptopelia turtur) and palm dove (Streptopelia senegalensis), mnwt and 'by, common crane (Grus grus), i^yt, 'jw, and g^, and demoiselle crane (Anfhropoides virgo), wd\ Other valuable birds sometimes kept for food include swan (Cygnus sp.), di-idn?; wigeon (Anas penelope), wsyt; European teal (Anas crecca), probably sr and s; quail (Cotumix cotumix), p'rt;
coot (Fulica atra), wh't; and possibly pigeons (Columba sp.). Pigeon cotes, a customary feature of the Upper Egyptian landscape well into the present century, probably did not exist during dynastic times, and are first attested in the archaeological record during the Greco-Roman period.
The impression one derives from pictorial and written sources of which kinds of poultry were viewed as desirable for dining is confirmed through zooarchaeological studies on bones from cemeteries and settlement sites. Burials of well-to-do people often had mummified victuals. A sumptuous funerary repast prepared for Tutankhamun during the eighteenth dynasty, found near his tomb (no. 62) in the Valley of the Kings, consisted of one brant goose (Branta bemicia), one white-fronted goose, two bean geese, four teals, two shovelers (Anas clypeata), one gadwall (Anas strepera), and two ducks that were not identified. In the intact eighteenth dynasty tomb of the architect Kha at Thebes (tomb 8), the deceased was interred with a large amphora filled with eviscerated poultry, reportedly preserved with salt. Theban tomb paintings show birds being processed in this manner and stored in similar tall jars.
Although Egyptian avicultuialists doubtless experienced some success breeding these birds, owing to the sheer abundance of waterfowl in the wild and ease of obtaining them, there was not a strong incentive for captive propagation. Nevertheless, the growing demand for table geese eventually led to the complete domestication of a goose, probably the graylag, by the time of the New Kingdom. The Egyptian goose occasionally appears in avi-cultural scenes, but only during the Old and Middle Kingdoms. By the early eighteenth dynasty, this large indigenous duck had risen in distinction, becoming sacrosanct to Amun, the powerful god of the city of Thebes. It was surely for this reason that this species was kept as a pet by some Theban notables, and is displayed quietly sitting near them in their decorated tomb-chapels, even accompanying them on fowling expeditions, despite the bird's infamously aggressive behavior. Otherwise, domestic poultry evidently played a small role in Egyptian religious belief.
Today's most characteristic farmyard bird, the chicken (or red jungle fowl. Callus gallus), was unknown to the ancient Egyptians until the nineteenth dynasty, and then only as a marvel imported from Southeast Asia by way of the Near East. The chicken did not become commonplace along the banks of the Nile until at least the Ptolemaic period. Classical writers, such as Diodorus Siculus (I, 74), in the middle of the first century BCE, mention the large-scale artificial incubation of poultry eggs by Egyptian avi-culturalists. Presumably, the practice of constructing hatcheries first developed during the Late period. It is also possible that the eggs of other species, such as the sacred ibis (Tlireskiomis aethiopicus), were incubated to supply the popular and burgeoning animal-cult industry with birds used as votive offerings. The earliest archaeological evidence for these installations comes from the sixth century CE. Hatcheries like this were still being used in some small villages of Upper Egypt as recently as the late 1950s.
Recent Pages:
· Philae
· Piety in Ancient Egypt
· Piramesse
· Tell el-Maskhuta (Pithom)
· Second Intermediate Period
· Piya (744–714 BC)
· Plutarch (c.46-120 CE)