Animals in Ancient Egyptian Society
06/12/24 • 58 min
In this episode Kara and Jordan discuss animals in ancient Egyptian society. What does the archaeological evidence tell us about the ancient Egyptians’ attitudes and practices towards non-human members of their society?
Show notes
There are many household animals; and there would be many more, were it not for what happens to the cats. When the females have kittened they will not consort with the males; and these seek them but cannot get their will of them; so their device is to steal and carry off and kill the kittens (but they do not eat what they have killed). The mothers, deprived of their young and desiring to have more will then consort with the males; for they are creatures that love offspring. And when a fire breaks out very strange things happen to the cats. The Egyptians stand round in a broken line, thinking more of the cats than of quenching the burning; but the cats slip through or leap over the men and spring into the fire. When this happens, there is great mourning in Egypt. Dwellers in a house where a cat has died a natural death shave their eyebrows and no more; where a dog has so died, the head and the whole body are shaven.
Oracular amuletic decree (ISAC, Chicago, Illinois)
Janssen, “Commodity Prices from the Ramesside Period” including animals
The Temple Cats of Philae Island Organization Facebook and Instagram
Get full access to Ancient/Now at ancientnow.substack.com/subscribe
In this episode Kara and Jordan discuss animals in ancient Egyptian society. What does the archaeological evidence tell us about the ancient Egyptians’ attitudes and practices towards non-human members of their society?
Show notes
There are many household animals; and there would be many more, were it not for what happens to the cats. When the females have kittened they will not consort with the males; and these seek them but cannot get their will of them; so their device is to steal and carry off and kill the kittens (but they do not eat what they have killed). The mothers, deprived of their young and desiring to have more will then consort with the males; for they are creatures that love offspring. And when a fire breaks out very strange things happen to the cats. The Egyptians stand round in a broken line, thinking more of the cats than of quenching the burning; but the cats slip through or leap over the men and spring into the fire. When this happens, there is great mourning in Egypt. Dwellers in a house where a cat has died a natural death shave their eyebrows and no more; where a dog has so died, the head and the whole body are shaven.
Oracular amuletic decree (ISAC, Chicago, Illinois)
Janssen, “Commodity Prices from the Ramesside Period” including animals
The Temple Cats of Philae Island Organization Facebook and Instagram
Get full access to Ancient/Now at ancientnow.substack.com/subscribe
Previous Episode
Ritual repair of mummies in the DeB 320 royal cache
During the process of recommodification and reburial by 21st Dynasty elites, several royal mummies in the Deir el Bahri 320 (also known as TT 320) burial cache were badly damaged. In this episode, Kara and Amber discuss the evidence we have for the ritual repair of these mummies carried out during their reburial, including the term rdit Wsir, “to make an Osiris.”
Ritner, Robert, 2009, The Libyan Anarchy: Inscriptions from Egypt’s Third Intermediate Period.
Ritner, Robert, 1993, The Mechanics of Ancient Egyptian Magical Practice.
Read more about the DeB 320 royal cache
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Next Episode
May 2024 Q&A
Show Notes
Evolution of Temple Architecture
Blyth, E. (2006) Karnak : evolution of a temple / Elizabeth Blyth. New York, NY: Routledge.
Wilkinson, R. H. (2000) The complete temples of ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson.
For Pre-formal → Formal temples see, Kemp, B. J. (2018) Ancient Egypt : anatomy of a civilization : pbk. 3rd ed. Routledge.
Rekhyt Bird Meaning
Griffin, Kenneth 2018. All the rxyt-people adore: the role of the rekhyt-people in Egyptian religion. GHP Egyptology 29. London: Golden House Publications.
Griffin, Kenneth 2007. A reinterpretation of the use and function of the Rekhyt rebus in New Kingdom temples. In Cannata, Maria and Christina Adams (eds), Current research in Egyptology 2006: proceedings of the seventh annual symposium which took place at the University of Oxford, April 2006, 66-84. Oxford: Oxbow.
Niwiński, Andrzej 2014. Did the Pat-people and the Rekhyt-people have different burial ceremonies? In Jucha, Mariusz A., Joanna Dębowska-Ludwin, and Piotr Kołodziejczyk (eds), Aegyptus est imago caeli: studies presented to Krzysztof M. Ciałowicz on his 60th birthday, 253-260. Kraków: Institute of Archaeology, Jagiellonian University in Kraków; Archaeologica Foundation.
Sex & Aphrodisiacs
Norris, Pauline 2020. Lettuce as an offering to Mnw (Min). In Maravelia, Alicia and Nadine Guilhou (eds), Environment and religion in ancient and Coptic Egypt: sensing the cosmos through the eyes of the divine. Proceedings of the 1st Egyptological conference of the Hellenic Institute of Egyptology, co-organized with the Writing & Scripts Centre of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and the Institute of Coptic Studies (University of Alexandria), at the People's University of Athens, under the high auspices of his Eminence Mgr Damianos, archbishop of Sinai; Athens: Wednesday 1st, Thursday 2nd Friday 3rd February 2017, 317-329. Oxford: Archaeopress.
Leitz, Christian 1999. Magical and medical papyri of the New Kingdom. Hieratic Papyri in the British Museum 7. London: The British Museum Press.
The Contendings of Horus and Seth
Guiter, Jacques 2001. Contraception en Égypte ancienne. Bulletin de l'Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale 101, 221-236
Ladinig-Morawetz, Franz-Stephan 2023. Defining "magic" using the example of Egyptian gynaecology. In Aguizy, Ola el- and Burt Kasparian (eds), ICE XII: proceedings of the Twelfth International Congress of Egyptologists, 3rd-8th November 2019, Cairo, Egypt 2, 1109-1115. [Cairo]: Institut français d'archéologie orientale.
Casini, Emanuele 2018. Rethinking the mutifaceted aspects of mandrake in ancient Egypt. Egitto e Vicino Oriente 41, 101-115. DOI: 10.12871/97888333918616.
Mathieu, Bernard 1999. L'univers végétal dans les chants d'amour égyptiens. In Aufrère, Sydney H. (ed.), Encyclopédie religieuse de l'univers végétal: croyances phytoreligieuses de l'Égypte ancienne 1, 99-106. Montpellier: Université Paul Valéry-Montpellier III.
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