Cattle

THE IMPORTANCE OF CATTLE IN ANCIENT EGYPT

It is tempting to focus only on the boat petroglyphs. They are indeed fascinating. Why are they present many miles from the Nile? But there are also many depictions of animals: ibex, giraffe, ostrich, dog, elephant hippo, crocodile and cattle. Cattle are present in the rock art of 40% of the Eastern Desert sites surveyed by the EDS and RATS. This frequency is second only to ibex (66%). The large and riverine animals, crocodiles (5%), hippos (6%) and elephants (13%) are comparatively rare.

Abbad Barramiya Hajalij Salam Mu Awad Shalul Iqaydi Dahabiya Abu Wasil

33% 44% 54% 39% 22% 38% 33% 0% 42%

Mineh Qash Hammamat Atwani

(% of sites in each wadi where bovid petroglyphs are present)

From these figures we can see that bovids are consistently spread in the rock art.

EARLY CATTLE REMAINS

The oldest evidence of ritual connected to cattle comes from Toshka (near Nabta Playa and Abu Simbel). Two human burials from the 12th milennium with a collection of wild grasses with cattle horns laid on top have been found. There is a huge passage of time to 1st. Dynasty burials surrounded by cattle horns, but the ritual importance of cattle is clear.

From 5,500-4,000 BC there was "a dramatic increase in the number of nomadic pastoralist fireplaces in the Nile Valley" (Hassan). Before this, hunting and fishing were the norm.

Wendorf and Schild found evidence of nomadic camps, megaliths (including a stone circle) and tumuli with cattle burials, but interestingly not human ones. A human cemetery has recently been discovered several kilometres away. In addition, they found a slab weighing 2.5 tons sculptured into a shape which my resemble a cow. This was buried under a megalithic structure. C14 dating from charcoal gives a date of 5,600-5,400 BC, and other dates now go to 4,000 BC when the area became much more arid.

Did cattle pastoralists migrate to the Nile? Cows are found in Badarian and Naqada graves. The Badarians had links with the Eastern Desert because agate and Red ea shells are common in graves. Did the stimulus for social complexity and therefore Nile civilisation come from the deserts?

CATTLE IN GODS' NAMES

Osiris = Bull of the West/Underworld, Ra = Bull of the Ennead, Sun God = The Bull that renews its youth, Ammmon = Bull of the Four Maidens, Min = Bull of his mother/He who cretes the vegetation so that the herds may live, Horus = Bull of Nekhen, Nut/Hathor = The Great Wild Cow (and the sky is portrayed as a great cow), Seth = The Bull of Nubt.

NAMES OF THE KING

THe King throughout Egyptian history is seen wearing a bull's tail. He is called Strong/Mighty Bull. Other references are-

1) The Bull of the Sky (Pyramid Text 273/4 the "Cannibal Hymn")

2) Golden Calf (Pyr. 485a) "Pepi comes to thee, O Ra, a calf of gold born of heave. I have come to you, Ra, a calf born in the sky, a fatted calf of gold...O Horus, do not leave me boatless." (Faulkner's translation)

3) The King is a child of cattle; "Thou hast no father among men, thou hast no mother among men, thy father is the Great Wild Bull, thy mother is the Young Cow" (Pyr. 809)

4) The Bull with Radiance in the midst of his eye; here the King appears as a bull looking for a mate, a strong fertility symbol stressing his virility, and as a fire breather. "The King is the Bull with radiance in the midst of his eye. The King's mouth is hale through the fiery blast and the King's head through the horns of the Lord of Upper Egypt. The King controls the good and makes the lapis grow." (Pyr. 319)

5) Enduring Bull; "You have become the Enduring Bull of the wild bulls against him. Endure, endure, O Enduring Bulthat you may be enduring at the head of the spirits forever."

6)The Great Wild Bull; "I am the Great Wild Bull...I am the Living Falcon who explores the firmament (and the Great Steering Oar)."

7)The Wild Bull of the Wild Grassland; "I have come for you, for I am the Wild Bull of the Wild Grassland, the Great-faced Bull which comes out of On. I have come for you

a wild bull out of the wild grassland."

8) Herdsman; Stand up O herdsman, for whom the three-day festival is celebrated." (Pyr.610)

9) Mourned by cattle when reborn as Osiris; "O you milch cows who are here, you nursing cows who are here, go round about him, weep for him, lament for him mourn for him when he ascends and goes to the sky among his bretheren of the gods." (Pyr.337)

THE KING'S MOTHER

"Your mother is The Great Wild Cow who dwells in Nekheb, white of head, long of plumes, and pendulous of breasts; she suckles and will not wean you." (Pyr 412) The sky goddess Nut is also described as "The long-horned, the pendulous of breasts." Nut takes the King up and "does not drop him to earth." The Queen Mother is also "The Cow That Hath Borne A Bull." The king goes aboard a barque "like Ra" to the Field of the Lower Skies. Isis and Nepthys take up the ropes at bow and stern. The King is dropped down "among the hntyws-s as cattle herds." (Pyr.548)

Here we have boat and cattle imagery combined, as we have in the Eastern Desert rock art. Both Hathor and Nut appear as sky goddesses and as cows. The King ascends to the sky in boat and ends up safely amng the herdsmen. Kings are shown holding the was sceptre, perhaps a cattle goad or a boat hook. It is notable that the King is removed from the human sphere concrning his birth and is either a child of cattle or "Kamutef"-the Bull of His Mother, conceiving himself.

The King is compared to a wild bull and his mother to a wild cow. It is the untamed, frightening and uncontrolled power of the dngerous wild bull which appealed to the Egyptians, and to many other Near Eastern societies. The "Master of Animals" appealed to peoples in an age when the land was still roamed by dangerous wild creatures who were a threat to man. Being able to kill, control and tame these powerful creatures was a sign of the ruler's potency and power, hence the many hunting scenes in Egyptian tombs, and, arguably, the rock art.

The King is "The Great Wild Bull Who Smites Nubia." He breathes fire, spreads fear among the herdsmen, is at the head of the wild bulls, and the earth and sky quake at his presence. The Bull of the Sky bends down his horn so that the King can pass over to the Otherworld and will not fall to the ground. (Pyr. 568)

We see the wild bull with its head turned to the side. This is the wild, rampaging bull as opposed to the tame bull. It appears in

-Eastern Desert rock art (rarely)

-KH 61 at Hierakonpolis on the western bank of the Nile

-the "Narmer" Palette

-the Battlefield Palette

-an ivory label of Aha

-hieroglyphs applied to the KIng meaning Victorious Bull (Ka-Nakht) plus Ka + the bovid hieroglyph and the dripping phallus; the King as a rampantly fertile beast.

On the "Narmer" Palette the King as a bull breaks down a city wall and literally tramples enemies underfoot on the Bull Palette. There are double Hathor heads on the "Narmer" Palette and the King wears a belt with Hathor head tasels-echoing Pyramid Text 335; "My kilt which is on me is Hathor."

BOVINE CREATOR GODS-THE SHEBTIU

The Edfu temple texts tell about the creation of the world as an island which rises from the primeval waters of Nun. Other pau islands follow. A falcon perches on reeds at the island's edge. Among the creator gods are: "The Most Aged Ones, The Fathers who fertilised, The Mothers who gave birth, the ones who were first to beget and to create the egg, the bulls who impregnated, the cows who conceived, The Builder Gods who fashioned in the primeval time, The Lords of Light, the makers of the radiance and sunrise" (Raymond). So bovine gods were among the first ones who created light and life.

Now the Edfu texts come with a HHW (a historical health warning). They are from a late Ptolomeic temple and the priests may have been claiming primacy for Edfu as the place of creation in competition with other religious centres. However, they do show how important cattle were in Egyptian religious belief and cration myth.

THE "CANNIBAL" HYMN

"The sky is overcast, the stars are darkened, the celestial expanses quicken, for they have seen the King as a god appearing in power-as a god who lives on (this translation has been queried) his father and feeds on his mother." So begins Pyramid Text 273/4 in Faulkner's translation of the so-called "Cannibal Hymn." The King is again the Bull of the Sky who lives on the being of every god and eats their entrails, even of those who come with their bodies full of magic from the island of fire." With this island of fire e hark back to the Edfu texts and the original bovine gods who the King now eats to acquire their magical power; typical of many early societies.

The King slays "The Old Ones" and is "one who eats men and lives on the gods." A being-"Grasper-of-Topknots," lassoes them for the King and Khons strangles them. Shemzu, god of wine and the oil press, cuts them up and cooks them.The King gulps down their spirits and their magical power. He hunts these gods to become more powerful by adding their strength to his. "The stars set fire to the cauldron containing the thighs of The Oldest Ones." (Pyr.140/5) The King travels through the sky and Underworld and traverses Egypt. Thus, "the King is a Great power, who has power over The Powers (Horus and Seth?)" He is a sacred image who devours whoever he finds in his way and eats the magic of the Red and White crowns. He has "swallowed the intelligence of every god" and eats a meal cooked from the gods' bones. Both Petrie at Naqada and the American expeditio at Hierakonpolis found (some) evidence of bones which had been deliberatelydislocated and perhaps deliberately broken to extract the marrow.

The King is the Bull of the Sky and even the elements react to his power. Elsewhere in the texts he is compared to a storm and he flashes like lightning across the sky. He has the power of the wild bull and the wild, uncontrolled elements. He also imbibes the magical power of the oldest gods, including bovine ones, and of the ancestors. He is a Power who can uphold cosmic order.

OTHER CATTLE REFERENCES

1) "Well tended are men, the cattle of God"-from The Teaching of Merikare.

2) "O Ra, who notes when men are asleep and seeks what is beneficial for his cattle"-Hymn of Ammon.

3) The Ferryman = Bull of the Gods.

4) Snake in the Pyramid Texts = Bull of the Forelock.

5) Nut, with long horns, suckles Osiris.

6) Ihy, child of cow goddess Hathor, is the Bull of Confusion (Coffin Texts).

7) Book of Am Duat-148: cows and bulls nourish the deceased. The deceased is placed on a bed in the shape of a cow as Nut receives him to be reborn.

8) Furniture legs are carved in the shape of bulls' legs up to Dynasty V, but lions' thereafter.

9) The long horn of cattle forms the "wep" in Wepuawet and occurs in parts of the skull/forehead when a crown is worn.

10) A cow's uterus is the symbol is the symbol of Meshkent, the goddess presiding over childbirth.

11) The verb "to be joyful" is a mother cow turning to lick the calf at her side.

12) The Mystery Play of the Succession: buthchers and milkmaids are the first to bring produce to the King, although the hetep meal (from its hieroglyph sign) consisted of bread.

13) The cults of Montu and Apis; first running of the Apis bull in Aha's reign.