Symbols of Birds in Ancient Egypt.

1. Birds in Ancient Egypt
edited by
Rozenn Bailleul-LeSuer
with new photography by
Anna r. Ress man

2. A pied kingfisher (Ceryle rudis)
among the papyrus marshes.
Wall painting from the northern
palace of Akhenaten, Amarna
(Davies 1936, vol. 2, pl. 76)

3. Flock of common teal (Anas crecca) at Lake Dahshur,
against the backdrop of the Red Pyramid of Snefru (photo
by Sherif Baha el Din)

4. “Egypt is a land of water-birds. In the migration season, the lagoons
of the Delta, the reed-banks of the Fayum, the canals, ponds and
flooded fields are crowded with thousands of water-birds, ibises,
pelicans, cranes, cormorants, herons of all kinds, flamingoes, ducks
and geese.”
— Hermann Kees,
Ancient Egypt: A Cultural Topography, p. 93

5. Section of “Geese of Meidum,” a fragmentary wall painting from the
mastaba of Nefermaat and Itet, now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo,
JE 34571/CG 1742. On the left, a bean goose (Anser fabalis) followed
by two white-fronted geese (Anser albifrons) (photo by George B.
Johnson)

6. Ceiling decoration in the temple of
Medinet Habu. Large
vultures deploy their wings over the
passers by (photo by Rozenn
Bailleul-LeSuer)

7. View of the Giza pyramids during the inundation.
Photographed by the Zangaki Brothers,
1870s–1890s (P. 9254)

9. THE REVERED AND THE HUNTED
The Role of Birds
in Ancient Egyptian Society

10. Clap-netting scene from the tomb of Nakht (TT 52; ca. 1400–1390 bc).
A team of four fowlers are shown having caught in their net a wide
variety of colorful waterfowl, for the most part ducks and a coot
(Fulica atra), with black plumage and red eyes (from Nina Davies 1936,
vol. 1, pl. 48)

11. Grey heron (Ardea
cinerea),
Aswan (photo by
Jonathan Rossouw)

12. Eurasian hoopoe (Upupa
epops), Luxor (photo by
Jonathan Rossouw)

13. In the mastaba tomb of his
father, the courtier Mereruka
(ca. 2305 bc), Mery-Teti is
watching the seining of fish,
holding his pet hoopoe by its
wings (from Sakkara Expedition
1938, part I, pl. 48C)
The Hoopoes are often represented being held by
children and it has been suggested that they served
as pets.

14. Quail netting during the harvest, as depicted in the mastaba
tomb of Mereruka (ca. 2305 bc) (from Sakkara Expedition
1938, part II, pl. 168)

15. Petroglyph in the Wadi
Barramiya depicting a
flock of ostriches
(courtesy of Douglas
Brewer)

16. Scene of poultry processing from
the tomb of Nakht (TT 52; ca.
1400–1390 bc). A man is shown
plucking the feathers of a duck,
while another is cutting a bird
open on a sloping board. Five
birds have already been processed
and have been hung to dry. The
large jars in the upper right corner
most likely contain the fat in
which the birds would be
preserved (from Davies 1936, vol.
1, pl. 48)

17. Force-feeding of a variety of birds: songbirds, perhaps doves and
pigeons, in the top left corner; ducks and geese in the central register;
cranes, both demoiselle (Anthropoides virgo) and common (Grus grus),
in the bottom right corner. Another flock of cranes is shown feeding on
grain poured by an attendant. A herdsman, standing in the bottom left
corner, is keeping watch over them (from Sakkara Expedition 1938,
part I, pl. 52)

18. Small gaggle of goslings
following their parents (D.
17884; photo by Anna
Ressman. For full scene, see
Catalog No. 14)

19. n the mastaba tomb of his brother
Mereruka, Ihi is shown enjoying
some fowl and wine during a
boating party in the marshes
(from Sakkara Expedition 1938,
part I, pl. 44)

20. Baskets of eggs beside a small f lock of captured Dalmatian
pelicans (Pelecanus crispus). Tomb of Horemheb (TT 78).
Thebes, Eighteenth Dynasty (Davies 1936, vol. 1, pl. 41)

21. In the tomb of Horemheb, ostrich
eggs and feathers figure among
tributes from the desert (from
Davies 1936, vol. 1,
pl. 38)

22. “Alethe, Attendant of the Sacred Ibis”
(1888). Oil on canvas (106 x 65 cm), by
Edwin Longsden Long (1829–1891).
BORGM 01350 (photograph
reproduced with the kind permission o
f the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and
Museum, Bournemouth, England)

23. 2 - the role of bird s within the
religious landscape of ancient Egypt

24. Bimorphic depiction of Thoth, with
the head of an ibis, and Horus, with
the head of a falcon, shown
anointing the pharaoh Ptolemy VIII
Euergetes II (170–163 bc). From the
temple of Kom Ombo (photo by Foy
Scalf)

25. Avian
Elements
Among
the
“transformatio
n” spells
of
Egyptian
funerary
texts

27. Spells 77–86 from Papyrus Milbank
(OIM E10486), a Ptolemaic Book of
the Dead papyrus belonging to
Irtyuru. The vignettes show the
various forms in which the
deceased wished to transform
himself by means of the
accompanying spells (D. 17930;
photo by Anna Ressman)

28. Inherkhau shown standing before the
phoenix in his tomb (TT 359). The
image is a supersized version of the
vignette from Book of the Dead spell
83, whose introductory passage is
above Inherkhau’s head: “Spell for
becoming the phoenix, entering and
going forth by Osiris, overseer of the
crew in the place of truth, Inherkhau,
justified” (photo by Charles Nims)

29. “one
bird,
one
pot”:
the
sacred
animal
cults
of
ancient
Egypt

30. The subterranean animal necropolis at Tuna el-Gebel. Pre-
Ptolemaic parts of the galleries shown in green (courtesy of
Dieter Kessler)

31. vulture lays before the
innumerable ceramic
vessels containing bird
bundles stacked at the
entrance to Gallery 6/5 in
the Falcon Catacomb
excavated at Saqqara
(Davies and Smith 2005, pl.
23d)

32. Base of the magical healing
statue of Djedhor from
Athribis, in which he
references his job caring for
the “living falcons who are in
this land ” (column 5 from
the left). OIM E10589 (photo
by Jean Grant)