Despite goats and sheep being less commonly represented in tomb scenes… they were kept in greater numbers than the more prestigious cattle.
Evidence suggests that sheep and goats were among the earliest domesticated animals used for meat in Egypt. On a ceremonial mace head in the Ashmolean Museum, Narmer listed the spoils of his unification campaign (c.3100 BC) as 400,000 cattle, 1,422,000 goats, and 120,000 human captives. In the record on the Palermo Stone of the Nubian campaign of Sneferu (c.2613-2589 BC), the term ‘small cattle’ denoted the goats and sheep included among 200,000 captured livestock. In his Giza tomb (G7948), known as ‘the tomb of numbers’, Khaefra-ankh, a priest of the mortuary cult of Khafra (c.2558-2532 BC), claimed to own 2,235 goats, 974 sheep, and more than 1,000 cattle. Rather than a precise and possibly exaggerated enumeration of his personal wealth, these numbers may relate to the herds and flocks of the estates he administered. Despite goats and sheep being less commonly represented in tomb scenes and unidentifiable among the joints of meat on offering tables, they were kept in greater numbers than the more prestigious cattle.
Goats
The main distinguishing feature between Egyptian sheep and goats is their horns; otherwise, the species were quite similar in appearance and can be difficult to separate by means of osteoarchaeological evidence. Being browsers rather than grazers, goats are among the most adaptable of animals, able to thrive in harsh environmental conditions.
Excavating the CA Archive: North Wales