The Meidum wall panel clearly depicts Red-breasted (left) and probably Greylag Goose, which would probably have wintered in the region at the time the artwork was created.
2 : The geese of Meidum
c.4,600 BP
The Meidum wall panel clearly depicts Red-breasted (left) and probably Greylag Goose, which would probably have wintered in the region at the time the artwork was created.
The first recorded birds that could clearly be identified to species level by accurately drawn details of their plumage were made by the tomb artists of ancient Egypt, and some of the most eye-catching of these to the modern observer are probably the geese of Meidum, preserved on a tomb decoration panel in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo.
This panel shows six geese, all assignable to three species: Red-breasted Goose, White-fronted Goose and what is either Greylag or possibly Taiga Bean Goose, to judge by size, colour and bill shape. None of these currently winters in Egypt, though the last two species have been recorded as vagrants in the Nile Delta.
The wall painting dates from around 4,600 BP, and was located in a passage in the mud-brick tomb of Itet, wife of Nefermaat, vizier, royal seal bearer, prophet and eldest son of Pharoah Sneferu. It was painted with pigments derived from limestone, iron ore and malachite mixed with egg white, and depicts an autumnal scene once common in daily life along the Nile: northern Palearctic geese feeding on the grasses growing in profusion over the river’s huge floodplain.
So far, more than 75 bird species have been identified in the wall art of ancient Egypt, as well as almost 50 species as mummified remains. However, birds meant substantially more to the Egyptians than beautifully rendered pictures, and through the amazing expansion of this over-achieving civilisation, birds entered the written language as ‘letters’ and ‘words’, and were viewed as earthly representatives of a god and treated in death as metaphysically equal to humans.
The god Horus was illustrated as having a falcon’s head and enfolded the pharoah in its wings in many painted murals, and Sacred Ibis was worshipped as a god and deemed as a suitable sacrifice for Thoth (himself often depicted as a man with the head of an ibis). The deity Thoth represented either the heart and tongue of their ultimate god Ra, or a god in his own right, the creator of science, philosophy, religion and magic, then viewed as facets of the same subject. The Greeks held onto Thoth as the originator of these strands of human endeavour, adding mathematics and language to his talents.
Consequently, Sacred Ibises were killed in their millions and are commonly found as mummies in Egyptian tombs. The purpose of mummification was often to preserve internal organs in the belief that they would continue to function in the afterlife. To this end, ibis gizzards were removed, embalmed and then placed back in the visceral cavity, still containing snail shells from the bird’s last meal; their whole body cavities were then stuffed with grain.
Egyptian hieroglyphs themselves are the second oldest major form of written language after Sumerian cuneiform, and are an intriguing contextual mix of consonants and whole words. Representations of ibises (representing the sound ‘gm’ and also meaning to find or discover) also became part of the writing on tomb walls as hieroglyphics, along with several other basic bird forms: owl (the letter ‘m’); quail chick (the letter ‘w’ or ‘u’, also indicating plurality); swallow (the sound ‘wr’, also meaning ‘great’); sparrow (‘small’ or ‘bad’); and vulture (the vowel ‘a’). Parts of birds were also used: the heads of Pintail, an unknown crested bird (perhaps a Hoopoe), Spoonbill and vulture, as well as wing feather, claws and egg.
A hieroglyphic combination of heron and the fabled phoenix was the mythical being Bennu, associated with resurrection and the seasonal rising of the Nile, and with the heart and soul of Ra himself; counter-intuitively, this was also illustrated as a Yellow Wagtail or eagle. A giant species of Middle Eastern heron is known to have become extinct within the last 5,000 years and may have inspired Bennu – Ardea bennuides grew to over two metres in height, had a wingspan of up to 2.7m (and a nest that measured 15m across), dwarfing Goliath Heron A. goliath, a sub-Saharan African species occasionally seen in Egypt.
Like the birds themselves, Egyptian bird-myths and pictorial uses are magical and dramatic, but such a prevalent cultural and spiritual application also shows how much birds meant to their complex world view. Birds would have provided food and were agricultural pests, as well as being prominent parts of the local scenery, inspiring artistic interpretation and inviting explanations of their meaning, form and behaviour.
It seems our very language and modes of communication have their origin partly in observations and representations of birds.