In Ancient Egypt, Life Wasn’t Easy for Elite Pets

Animal skeletons found buried in a 5,000-year-old cemetery reveal injuries from beatings, restraints.

By Traci Watson, National Geographic 

For ancient Egyptians, owning a menagerie of exotic animals conveyed power and wealth. But the remains of baboons, hippos, and other elite pets buried more than 5,000 years ago in a graveyard near the Nile reveal the dark side of being a status symbol.

Baboon skeletons found at one tomb bear dozens of broken hand and foot bones, hinting at punishing beatings. At least two baboons have classic parry fractures, broken arms that typically occur when trying to shield the head from a blow. A hippo calf broke its leg trying to free itself from a tether, and an antelope and a wild cow also show injuries probably related to being tied.

Ancient zookeepers “clearly had difficulty maintaining these animals,” says zooarchaeologist Wim Van Neer of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, who led a new analysis of the skeletons to be published in an upcoming issue of the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. “The practical means of keeping animals in captivity were not so sophisticated as nowadays.”

The animals were found in the ancient cemetery of Hierakonpolis, a town that thrived long before Egypt became a united kingdom ruled by pharaohs. Excavations have revealed two elephants, a leopard, two crocodiles, and remains of nine more exotic species buried near the tombs of powerful citizens. Nowhere else in Egypt have archaeologists found such an array of ancient zoo animals, which were probably sacrificed after their owners died.

Artifact Trove at Egyptian Tomb Illuminates Life Before Pharaohs

Archaeologist uncovers human sacrifices and evidence of strife.

By Andrew Curry
National Geographic

A recently discovered tomb at a key Egyptian settlement has yielded the largest trove of artifacts ever found in a tomb there—including a young man's burned and scattered bones—and is shedding new light on the ancestors of the pharaohs.

Part of a cemetery complex that predates the formation of the ancient Egyptian state, the find is one of the richest "predynastic" burials archaeologists have ever seen.

The tomb, at the site known as Hierakonpolis, yielded 54 objects, including combs, spearheads, arrowheads, and a figurine made of hippopotamus ivory. Arrayed around the tomb are dozens more burials, including possible human sacrifices and exotic animals.

The latest find, announced earlier this month, is adding to the remarkable story coming out of the Hierakonpolis cemetery, which has been under investigation since 1979.

"It demonstrates the importance of this cemetery, with its high-status burials," says Boston University archaeologist Kathryn Bard. "They have some very interesting secondary burials of humans and animals and wooden structures that are unique to Hierakonpolis."

Hierakonpolis, located on the Nile River about 300 miles (500 kilometers) south of Cairo, was the most important settlement in Egypt's predynastic period, a five-century stretch that began around 3,500 B.C. and preceded the formation of the ancient Egyptian state.

The finds at Hierakonpolis show that the roots of ancient Egyptian civilization stretched back centuries. There are clear signs of social divisions, with elite tombs that are richer and larger than others. "There must have been a whole dynasty of predynastic kings," says Renee Friedman, a British Museum archaeologist who is director of the expedition.

The Hierakonpolis elite erected elaborate wooden structures over their tombs, parts of which have been preserved for more than 6,000 years by the dry climate. Their graves were surrounded by retainers, wild animals, and other accoutrements for their journey into the afterlife, foreshadowings of the mighty civilization that followed.

Relationship Between Man and Cat May Be Older Than We Think

BY TOM JACOBS • March 05, 2014

Remains suggest cats may have been domesticated in Egypt 5,700 years ago.

Humans and cats have been enjoying, or at least tolerating, one another’s company for a very long time. But when, exactly, did we start hanging around together?

Newly published research suggests it was way back in the 4th millennium B.C.E.

“It is clear that there was a close relationship with humans that predate the oldest accepted evidence for domestic cat in Egypt by almost two millennia,” writes a research team led by Wim Van Neer of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. Its paper is published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

As the researchers note, conventional wisdom has long held that cats were first domesticated in ancient Egypt somewhere around 1950 B.C.E. A few years ago, however, a discovery was made while excavating an ancient cemetery at Hierakonpolis, a sizable city that predates the pyramids.

A group burial from around 3700 B.C.E. included a young adult jungle cat featuring a healed bone fracture. This indicates “the animal had been tended to for several weeks prior to its sacrifice,” which means it was a domestic cat—at least for the final stage of its life.

Uncovering the Origins of Ancient Egypt

Posted by Andrew Howley of NG Staff in Explorers Journal on April 22, 2013


Ancient Egypt has stood out even among the impressive remains of other ancient civilizations for three main reasons: the pyramids are enormous, the cultural style and imagery remained consistent for ages, and it is really, really old. In fact, the pyramids were roughly as old to ancient tourists from classical Greece as the ruins of Athens and Delphi are to us today.

One of the biggest questions surrounding ancient Egypt then is “where did it come from?” Last week at the Dialogue of Civilizations in Guatemala, National Geographic grantee Renée Friedman of the British Museum, and Ramadan Hussein, recent recipient of a Humboldt Research Fellowship at the University of Tuebingen, set out to answer that question.

The Catfish

Friedman began by showing the “Narmer Palette,” which dates from 3100 BC, and features a ruler, triumphant over his enemies, seen with the crowns of both Upper and Lower Egypt. He is identified by two animal images: a falcon, symbol of the leader of gods, Horus; and a catfish his own personal symbol, since the ancient Egyptian word for catfish was “nar.”


According to Friedman, the iconography of forceful leadership and control over chaos illustrate that already at this early date, the role of kingship in Egypt fit a pattern that would continue for the next 3,000 years. But this is still not the beginning.

Who Is King Scorpion?

Abstract

The ‘Scorpion’ Mace-head is one of the most significant objects from the main deposit at Hierakonpolis. Unlike the Narmer Mace-head, it is not a complete mace-head but only part of one. Apart from the dominant figure after whom the palette is named, the surrounding scenes are partial; however excellently these have been conserved. This makes the object even more enigmatic and difficult to interpret than usual in the context of the development of Early Dynastic royal iconography.

This article re-examines the evidence and suggests an alternative identification for King Scorpion.

Read the rest of this very interesting article at: http://www.egyptological.com/2011/12/who-is-king-scorpion-6363

Menes, The First Pharaoh?

There is considerable confusion amongst scholars as to who the first Egyptian Pharaoh was, who ruled over all of Egypt from his capital at Memphis. According to the kings list made a thousand years after his time, his name was Men, Meni or Mena. The reason for using different vowels is because in Egyptian writing vowels are not written (as at times in Arabic) and these have to be guessed. The Greek historian Manetho of 200 BC who was known for developing meticulous historical records, called him Menes in Greek. That is the most popular way Mene is mentioned in modern literature. This pharaoh is the legendary king that came from the town of Tinis in Upper Egypt and took over Lower Egypt (the North) by force. He then became the first king over the whole country and founded a new capital for united Egypt - Memphis, just where the two states bordered on each other. According to archaeological dating this was around 3200 BC. For thousands of years, King Menes was thought to be the first king of Egypt. Ancient Egyptian records clearly identify him as the first king of the first dynasty.