Ancient Egyptian artists were keen observers of the natural world.
A scene of wildfowling in the papyrus marshes from the Tomb of Nebamun, now in the British Museum (BM). The colourful plumage of the birds is shown in detail, while the artist has chosen composition over accuracy in conveying their relative sizes. Image: Sarah Griffiths
The vivid tomb images depicting life along the Nile – hunting, fishing, and tending the fields – prove that ancient Egyptian artists were keen observers of the natural world. The information they provide allows modern botanists, ornithologists, and zoologists to build a detailed picture of Egypt’s ancient ecology. Analysis of such artistic nuances as variations in size, shape, and colouration can provide hints to species identification. Most tomb and temple paintings and reliefs were produced to serve ritual functions rather than being purely decorative. Consequently, artists were constrained by protocols regarding the hierarchies of representation, and design and composition were dictated by the nature of the location and the space available, resulting in the stylisation and simplification of natural scenes. An understanding of the purpose for which an image was created, and an appreciation of the artistic conventions that governed the artists’ work, are essential for any researcher investigating Egypt’s flora and fauna.
Loss of colour
The Old Kingdom tombs and pyramid complexes of Saqqara and Giza, and the Fifth Dynasty sun temples, are especially famous for the quality and vivacity of their reliefs. In their original state, such images would have been painted, but the loss of colour over the centuries, whether by natural deterioration or human action, has resulted in a loss of detail that is particularly apparent in the depictions of birds. Among the wild birds of the papyrus swamps or the captive fowl in poultry yards, some, such as storks, ibis, and pelicans, are recognisable by their distinctive body shapes alone, while others, including pigeons, ducks, and geese, are generic bird types that, without more specific details (especially plumage colouring) are more difficult to differentiate into species and subspecies.
