 Hardly
any other ancient people honored the animals they hunted more than the
ancient Egyptians. Like the Native Americans the ancients Egyptian hunters
prayed to god and goddess images of the animals they quarried to ensure
their safety and the success of the hunt. Hunting in ancient Egypt not
only provided a variety of fish, fowl and meat, but became a symbol of
courage and mastery over many of the animal forces the Egyptians believed
they needed to conquer.
The hunter’s philosophy
"A balanced relationship between people and beasts
was seen by the ancient Egyptians as one element in the eternal globe and
cosmic order," says The Life of Ancient Egyptians on the Web
(historical essays). Hunters knew their animals well—their mating
habits, diet, diseases and their "personal" characteristics. Out
of this respect came great success in hunting.
The hunter’s world
Predynastic Egypt had been a paradise for hunters.
Agriculture had not yet infringed on some of the wild lands of the fertile
alluvium. The land was a virtual wet jungle of trees and thickets of reed
and papyrus. All kinds of animals--elephants, giraffe, lions, rhinoceros,
wild boar,
 antelopes,
gazelles, numerous varieties of deer, ibex, countless numbers of birds,
fish, crocodiles and hippopotami--thrived in this area. There’s a famous
hunting scene that comes from the period of Egypt’s original
unification, showing a hunting party out for lions, gazelles, stags and
ostrich.
Then cultivation and stockbreeding began to take hold
along the Nile during the first three dynasties. When the farmers drained
the marshes and extended the region of agriculture, the larger game left
the valley. During the Old Kingdom there is evidence that hunting took
place mainly on the plains beyond the pyramid burials. But there was still
a lot of game—hyenas, lions and leopards—all of which required a
greater degree of skill to hunt, and were pursued for their skins as well
as their meat.
Fit for a king
Meat was not eaten very much by the peasant farmers;
they stuck mostly to bread and beer, vegetables and dried fish. It appears
that hunting was reserved for the richer nobles. As
 hunting
lost its economic importance, "the chase" became a matter of
sport for kings, courtiers and dignitaries "in which they could
display their strength and valor," according to The Life of
Ancient Egyptians on the Web.
In the early days, a desert hunt took place on foot, but
after the chariot was introduced, the Pharaoh and his colleagues galloped
after their prey. According to Egyptian Life by Miriam Stead,
"The technique of hunting was to await or lure a large number of
animals to a restricted area, possibly around a water hole, and then to
attack them en masse with volleys or arrows. The nobleman would be
accompanied by professional huntsmen."
Animals were also used as accomplices in the hunt. There
were a couple types of hunting dogs depicted throughout Egypt’s history,
but the favorite seem to resemble the greyhound. Some evidence from tomb
paintings suggest that tame cheetahs may have also been drafted in the
hunt. The Egyptians wielded a number of different tools in the hunt:
spears, arrows, throw-sticks, nets which had been driven into a wadi and a
boomerang type of weapon to take down birds from the sky.
Hunting in the marshes included fowling, fishing and
possibly the killing of hippopotami. The techniques of the hunt and its
pleasures are summed up in a fragmentary papyrus called The
 Pleasures
of Fishing and Fowling. In one part a hunter describes the process of
bird trapping and the excitement he experiences in snaring ducks in the
net.
Fishing was an exciting sport and seemed to be
particularly important in the Old and
Middle
Kingdoms. Besides sportsman,
there were professional fishermen on the Nile and its canals. Typically,
the fishers would stand in their papyrus canoes, ready with their
harpoons. They apparently got lazier by the time of the New
Kingdom; they
were often portrayed with rod and line, sitting in their armchairs beside
their garden pools!
But real fisherman faced real dangers. There were
species of poisonous catfish and one of the most dreaded foe of all—the
crocodile. If a boat capsized, there was real risks of being devoured by
this monster of the Nile.
However, fishing was also a time for fun. There are tomb
paintings showing fisherman playfully trying to jostle each other with
their fishing poles.
Hunting provided a lot of different things to the
ancient Egyptians. It wasn’t just meat and skins, but a chance to prove
one’s prowess and enjoy the camaraderie of friends on the hunt. The
pleasure of the hunt is recorded in the fishing and fowling papyrus:
"A happy day when we go down to the marsh, that we may snare birds
and catch many fishes in the waters…a happy day on which we give to
everybody and the marsh goddess is propitious. We shall trap birds and
shall light a brazier to Sobek."
See also:
###
Archives
|
