ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR IN ANCIENT EGYPT

World-first PhD research at Macquarie University is looking at the way animal behaviour is represented in Egyptian wall scenes. Experts say it will change the way ancient Egyptian tomb art is interpreted, and enrich the understanding of life in this fascinating period in history.

Image supplied by Australian Centre for Egyptology

Linda Evans is a research assistant at Macquarie University's animal behaviour laboratory. In addition to a passion for animals, she is also passionate about archaeology and her PhD study at the Australian Centre for Egyptology has enabled her to combine these two interests.

Evans is currently writing her thesis after eight and a half years' part-time work examining 8208 images of animals in 291 tombs and tomb fragments from cemeteries from the Old Kingdom period at Giza and Saqqara.

Egyptologists have never before concentrated on the ways animals are depicted in wall scenes, often misrepresenting what the animal was doing or assuming that the artist was mistaken if there was anything unusual in the image.

Evans has found that ancient Egyptians observed and understood a lot more about animal behaviour than we might have thought - not only that of the animals with which they had a lot of contact, but also the behaviour of smaller, less significant creatures.

"These people studied animals very well," she says. "They had a highly tuned awareness of their world probably because they lived in close proximity to the animals. The Nile valley comprises a long thin area of water and fertile land before a large expanse of desert, so the people and the animals lived very closely together."

The scene shown on the cover and above is a marsh scene from the tomb of Hesi at Saqqara. It is a very detailed depiction of animal life at the marsh.

Evans thinks that the artist who drew the images in the tomb must have been a very keen animal watcher as the array of animals, along with the detail of their behaviour, is quite extraordinary.

For instance, in the middle of the marsh scene there are some birds nesting, sitting on eggs with their wings forward. Previously Egyptologists would not have taken much notice of this unusual placement of the wings, putting it down to an artist's mistake or an assumption that the birds were trying to keep their eggs warm.
However, Evans took a keen interest in this positioning. Birds do not generally put their wings forward like that, but she did not think it was an artist's mistake and set about investigating it.

"If you look to the side of the image you can see genets (small cat-like carnivores) climbing the flower stalks with one (on the left-hand side) holding a baby bird in its mouth, and one (on the right-hand side) being swooped and bitten on the ears by a bird," Evans says. "These genets were predators. They liked to eat the baby birds."

Given the context of what was going on around them, she did not think the wing positioning of the nesting birds was a passive thing. Sure enough when she researched the behaviour of birds when faced with a predator she discovered that they fluff their feathers out and pull their wings out from their body to try to make themselves look bigger to deter the predator.

Evans explains that as there is no three-dimensional perspective in Egyptian art, the artist had no way of showing the wings being pulled out from the body other than by drawing the wings placed forward.
"So this was actually an attempt to threaten predators. Egyptians knew about it not only by observing the behaviour with the genet, but probably by experiencing it themselves when they attempted to take the eggs," she says.

Also of interest is the drawing of a pied kingfisher in the middle of the picture. It is shown with its head at a strange angle. Evans explains that in real life, these birds hover over the water with their body almost vertical and their head facing downwards, watching the water to see the fish. Then when they see their prey, they fold their wings in and plunge into the water to catch the fish.

The praying mantis is very difficult to see in the wall scene, just as it is in real life.

"The Egyptian artists would often try to cram a whole sequence of actions into one image," she explains. "That is why the angle of the pied kingfisher appears to be so odd - the artist has tried to depict both the hover and the plunge in the one drawing."

She found this to be a common occurrence. "Donkeys are often drawn running and eating at the same time. Egyptologists would note this and state in their descriptions that this was curious, or that the artist was mistaken. But I believe it is we who are mistaken - the donkey was running and then stopped to eat. The artist simply tried to draw the whole sequence in one image," she says.

With an understanding of animal behaviour, Evans found a logical reason for almost all of the behaviours represented in the wall scenes.

Another part of the Hesi marsh scene that she was particularly excited to see is an image of a praying mantis - shown right. While conducting her PhD research, Evans read Professor of Egyptology Naguib Kanawati's tomb report for Hesi where he described all of the animals in the marsh scene.

"He described a grasshopper hidden in the lower right hand corner of the marsh, which was quite a common finding in marsh scenes," she says. "But when I looked at the same drawing as part of my research I saw straight away that it was not a grasshopper but a praying mantis."
This was of particular interest to Evans because praying mantids have, to her knowledge, never before been found in wall scenes, while grasshoppers are common.

"The praying mantis is also very difficult to see in the wall scene, just as it is in real life. As a sit-and-wait predator, it blends in with the foliage. The artist shows a keen understanding of this behaviour as the insect's camouflage is clearly depicted in the scene," she explains.

So how did Macquarie's esteemed professor feel about being proven wrong in his interpretation of the grasshopper in the Hesi marsh scene? He loved it.

"This is exactly what I have tried to encourage in bringing students from all different backgrounds to study Egyptology at Macquarie University," he smiles.

Kanawati's unique approach to Egyptology means that people with degrees in a range of areas, such as architecture, art, medicine, psychology, chemistry or law, are encouraged to bring their particular areas of expertise to their research.

Amongst a conservative worldwide community of Egyptologists this is an innovative approach, and is what attracted Evans to do her PhD at Macquarie University.

"I do not regard Egyptology as just a course in history. It is a study of life," he says. "People from other backgrounds can enrich the subject enormously, bringing their unique experience and expertise to reinterpret the discoveries."

Kanawati is particularly excited about Evans' study of animal behaviour because the wall scenes have never been interpreted from this perspective before.

"This is an example of truly world-class research and I can't wait to see the thesis published," he says.

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Email the researcher: lqe@galliform.bhs.mq.edu.au