THE WEALTH OF THE NILE -- THE CULTURE AND ECONOMY OF ANCIENT EGYPT

ANIMALS AND LIVESTOCK

Humans began domesticating animals at the end of the last Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago. Only a handful of animals can be tamed. Fortunately for the Egyptians, many of these lived in or near the Nile Valley. They used them for transportation, food, labor, religion, sport and simple companionship.

LIVESTOCK
The ancient Egyptians prized and utilized cattle above all other animals. Sahara rock paintings prove that the relationship predates even the cultivation of the Nile Valley. The Egyptian ox was descended from either the domesticated oxen of the ancient Near East, or from the wild auroch of North Africa (Bos primigenius), or both.

Cattle supplied meat, milk, skins, leather, horn, fat and dung. They used cows for work and bulls for sacrifice. They used both as a food reserve in times of crop shortages.

The Egyptians like other African peoples originally bred long-horned cattle, but by New Kingdom times a short-horned variety appeared. Cattle colors included black, brown, tan with brown spots, white with black spots, black and white and pure white.

Whenever possible, cattle were allowed to graze in open fields. During the inundation, they led cattle to the higher levels of the flood plain and fed them grain from the previous year. The cattle of different owners could mix, of course, so the Egyptians early on etched or marked the horns to establish identification. The large estates and temples used branding to mark their cattle. The availability of free range land declined as the Egyptian climate grew drier and the land more cultivated, so penned cattle became more common as time went by.

Cattle, especially bulls, figured prominently in ancient Egyptian religion from earliest Predynastic times. Special farms fattened and decorated them for for sacrifice. The famous cult of the Apis Bull was sacred to the cult of the god Ptah and bulls figured prominently in the worship of the gods Ra, Osiris and Min. The cow was central to the ancient fertility cult of the goddess Hathor.

The pig (sus scrofa) was domesticated no later than 4000 BC (prehistoric pig bones have been found both in the Delta and in Upper Egypt). Egyptians, especially the lower classes, ate pork but considered it ritually unclean and never used it in religious ceremonies. Pig farming expanded considerably during the New Kingdom.

Goats and sheep were of lesser economic importance, although all classes ate goat meat. The Egyptians used goat skins as water containers and flotation devices. They apparently consumed little mutton, and neither the milk or meat of sheep was sacrificed.

For poultry the Egyptians had the Nile goose (Alopochen aegyptiacus) which, despite its vile temper, often had the run of the house and garden. The goose was sacred to the god Geb, called 'The Great Cackler' when he took on goose-form. The Egyptians maintained lakes throughout the land to provide for sacred geese. They used the eggs for food and rituals. The domestic chicken didn't appear until the New Kingdom, and became more common in the Later Dynasties Period.

The Egyptians made early attempts to domesticate animals such as hyenas, gazelles and cranes, but gave up by Old Kingdom times. Generally for the Egyptians meat only supplemented their mostly carbohydrate diet.

The Royal Horse Chariot

HORSES
The Hyksos invaders first introduced the horse and the chariot to the Nile Valley during the Second Intermediate Period. In fact it was this weapon which gave them their principal advantage over the native Egyptians.

The Egyptians soon adopted the new technology, and horses became common among the elite. Harnessed to the chariot, they used them for hunting, for war, and for ceremonial processions.

Only the wealthy could afford to maintain horses and they became New Kingdom status symbols. The Egyptian used them as prestige gifts for foreign rulers. Ramesses II (1279-1213 BC)- built huge stables housing hundreds of horses.

The average height of the Egyptian horse was 4.5 ft/1.3 m tall, though some were as tall as 5 ft/1.5 m. As a prized posession, the horse was never used for farming, portage or least of all, food.

BEASTS OF BURDEN
Other than manpower, the Egyptians mostly used donkeys for carrying loads and for transport. They domesticated early on the Nubian wild ass, Equus asinus africanus. Even the royalty seems to have used them. Despite their surly character, millions were kept throughout Egypt.

Egyptians learned of camels about 1000 BC from Asian foreigners trading in the land. They didn't use them much until after the Persian conquest in the Later Dynasties Period.

SACRIFICES
The Egyptians used special farms to fatten sacred oxen and oryx antelopes for sacrifice. The animals grazed by day and led back to sheds and fed grain mash at night.

They sacrificed many cattle to the gods. In the New Kingdom, thousands of oxen decorated with ostrich feathers and tens of thousands of geese were sacrificed each year on the altars of the god Amun alone.

HUNTING
Like all ancient peoples, the Egyptians loved hunting. After all, for most of human history, people had to hunt to get meat. In late Stone Age and Predynastic times, however, hunting to eat slowly gave way to agriculture and stockbreeding. Hunting became a sport, mostly for the royalty and nobility.

In prehistoric times the Nile Valley was filled with game. Jungles of trees and scrub and thick wetlands of reed and papyrus ran up and down the river. Here lived wild boar, ibex, antelopes, gazelles, deer of all kinds, lions, giraffes, rhinoceros, elephants, hippopotamus, crocodiles, and all sorts of birds and fish. But extensive draining and cultivation under the Early Dynastic kings drove the game out of the valley proper.

By Old Kingdom times, Egyptian royalty hunted in the desert out beyond the monuments edging the cultivated plains. Attendants and beaters accompanied them. At first they hunted on foot, but later in the New Kingdom by chariot. The usual game was antelope or gazelles, ibex, ostriches or wild sheep. Hyenas, lions and leopards required more skill and courage, and their pelts more highly prized.

Egyptians hunted water fowl with throwing sticks or snared them in nets.

FISHING
From the most ancient times the Egyptians used fish as an easy source of protein. As in so much else, the Nile provided abundantly. They fished for food, for trade and for sport.

The Egyptians used hooks, nets, traps, pens and harpoons. They started with bone hooks tied to a line. By the Middle Kingdom they had rods and barbed metal hooks. They used nets and corralled fish into pens. Sometimes they harpooned fish standing in papyrus canoes; sometimes they lounged in chairs with a line in the water. They fished the river, the marshes, the Faiyum, canals, and private ponds. The Egyptians cleaned then boiled, pickled, salted or dried the fish.

They considered certain species sacred, such as the Nile perch, sacred to Neith, and the Nile eel. Other species eaten by the Egyptians (but not the pharaoh or priests) included the catfish, carp, mullet, tilapia, elephant-snout fish, tiger fish, and moonfish.

There were dangers. One species of catfish had a highly poisonous spine on its dorsal fin. The ferocious Nile crocodile could steal the catch, attack boats and devour overboard fishermen.

BEE-KEEPING
With no sugar, honey was the only sweetener in ancient times. The Egyptians, however, especially prized honey and beeswax. They maintained beehives at least since Old Kingdom times. They kept many beehives in Lower Egypt in the extensively cultivated fields – in fact, the hieroglyphic symbol for Lower Egypt was the bee. In Upper Egypt bee-keepers kept hives on boats, and moved them north downriver to follow the flowering of the plants in the spring. They loved wild honey even more.

Egyptians used honey for sweetening, for offerings to the gods, for ointments and cosmetics, for medicine and for mummification.

They added honey to wine, to bread and made pastries with it. They applied it to open wounds – an effective treatment (we now know) due to the antibacterial and fungicidal qualities of honey.

They used beeswax for mummification, medicine, boat building, metal-casting molds and as a binding agent in paints and glue. The ubiquitous Egyptians wigs used beeswax as ‘hairspray’ to hold braids.

PETS
The Egyptians kept dogs, cats, ferrets, geese and ducks, monkeys, doves and falcons as pets. Royalty sometimes kept cheetahs and even lions as 'pets'.

Cats were more popular as pets than other animals in ancient Egypt. They domesticated the wild cat of the Delta. They kept the vital granaries free of rats and mice. We have record of individual names and the mummified bodies of cats. They were considered divine, the theophany of the goddess Bast. Killing a cat not only violated the law, but infuriated the populace. Despite a ban on export, domesticated cats spread out from Egypt to the Near East.

Dogs were almost as popular as cats. They too had individual names, and often buried with their masters. Dogs went on hunts and served as guards and companions. There were even dog cemetaries.

Several breeds enjoyed popularity during Egyptian history. The basenji, a medium-sized hound, can be traced back to the courts of the pharaohs. A breed like the sloughi (a greyhound ancestor) appeared in the Old Kingdom. Middle Kingdom Egyptians preferred short-legged breeds, and the harrier beagle in the New Kingdom.