Feeding time BC

With this month featuring both World Animal Day and Global Cat Day, we’ve been focusing on the amazing work undertaken by some of our favourite animal charities dedicated to keeping our four-legged friends safe, healthy and of course well-fed. Working tirelessly to do this as we’ve seen in person and on their social media posts, feeding time was also something the ancient Egyptians portrayed vividly too, not only among domesticated animals but the wide variety of wildlife they observed all around them.

Hedgehog eating a grasshopper, Sakkara tomb of Vizier Ptahhotep c.2350 BC (© Harpur & Scremin)

With one of the finest images a hedgehog emerging from its burrow to munch a tasty grasshopper c.2350 BC (above), the feeding of livestock is a far more common motif, in some cases the cattle even being hand-fed fresh greens and bread dough to fatten them up. Goats and sheep also appear too, along with the pigs often claimed to be absent from the Egyptian diet yet whose bones are found in excavation and their images on tomb walls, sketches on ostraca (limestone flakes) and in figurine form, where they too are shown eating (below). 

Feeding pigs in tomb scenes of granary overseer Nebamun c.1450 BC as copied by Howard Carter & published by former Barnsley MP Marquis of Northampton in 1908; ostracon sketch of child crying while sharing a pig’s dinner c.1200 BC (© Louvre) 

Yet it soon becomes obvious that animals were shown eating their food far more frequently than their human counterparts. For with the exception of the Amarna Period when the royal family were portrayed scoffing roast meats and quaffing plentiful wine supplies, and their occasional subject enjoying beer and vegetables, almost everyone else in pharaonic history appears tantalisingly close to the treats piled up beside them but hardly ever eating anything.

Admittedly this is also the case when animals are representing deities in offering scenes, the Great Cats of the sun god for example sitting down to bread and vegetables (below left) which would surely have left real cats unimpressed. Even in cases where a cat sits before a bird on the offering table (below right), this too appears to be the sun god in feline form, sitting beneath the sacred tree in his cult centre Heliopolis while the bird facing him is far from dead. In fact it appears to be engaging him in conversation, so it’s tempting to wonder if this could be the cat of Ra with the sacred goose of Amun, together forming the super deity Amun-Ra of Thebes where this particular sketch was found. 

Stela from Deir el-Medina with 2 aspects of ‘the Cat of Ra’, c.1300 BC (© Ashmolean) & ostracon of the sacred cat with a bird (© Staatliche Museen zu Berlin)

And while such scenes may well be tapping into more elusive aspects of myth, others may simply portray mealtime, with the most famous example of a cat face-to-face with a bird on an offering table featuring the pampered Tamiut (‘Lady Cat’) sitting atop a plump cushion in front of a decidedly dead duck. No doubt roasted to perfection on the orders of her royal owner Prince Tuthmosis, uncle of Tutankhamun, no actual eating ensues here either, nor in the case of a bowl of rather modern-looking meaty cat food just out of reach of the cat beneath the chair of Lady Tuy, wife of Theban harbour master Maya. But this is only because of its short red lead tied to the chair leg of Tuy herself, who at any moment will surely be alerted by the insistent miaouing coming from her cat’s open mouth.

Tamiut’s roast duck supplied by Prince Tuthmosis c.1380 BC (© Egyptian Museum Cairo) & bowl of cat food courtesy of Lady Tuy in Theban tomb scenes shared with husband May c.1430 BC (© MMA)

Then of course we have the cats who provided their own dinner by hunting (below), any cat owner knowing that feeling when brought a mouse to ‘share’, something the Egyptians would have appreciated rather more since it helped keep their all-important grain stores intact.

Cat with mouse sketched on ostracon from Deir el-Medina village, c.1300-1100 BC (© P.Houlihan) & detail of Nebamun’s cat catching birds with him by the Nile c.1380 BC (© BM)

Similarly we find cats hunting birds, the best known image of which is part of the celebrated Theban tomb scene of royal scribe Nebamun. Featuring his cat bringing down a pair of waterfowl with its claws and a third with its teeth (above right), the cat belonging to Lady May, sister-in-law of Vizier Ramose, has presumably been doing exactly the same thing before wandering in to sit beneath May’s chair, the dead duck it prepares to eat held firmly in its claws (below left).

(L) Cat under the chair of May in the Theban tomb of Ramose c.1350 BC (© Osirisnet) & (R) Sentnay’s cat with its ‘beef in a basket’ in Theban tomb of Sennefer, c.1430 BC (© Osirisnet)

And this same pose of ownership is adopted by the cat in the tomb scenes of Theban mayor Sennefer (above right), its paw resting on a large joint of beef served 1970s style ‘in a basket’ by Sennefer’s wife Sentnay the royal nurse. Then savouring the remaining meat on the bone as they polish off their own dinners, the rather surprised looking cat beneath the chair of Mutemwia and husband, Amun priest Raia, is surely doing just this as it uses its claws to lift the food to its mouth (rather than claims it’s ‘sniffing a flower’), another cat ‘gnawing a bone’ in the tomb scenes of Karnak’s treasury scribe Neferronpet, again wearing a red collar whose matching lead is tied to the stool of Neferonnpet’s own wife Mutemwia.

Cat with meaty bone (?) in Theban tomb of Raya & Mutemwia (© K.Adam) & in Theban tomb of Neferronpet & Mutemwia (© Osirisnet) both c.1250-1200 BC

Yet of course the classic food usually associated with cats is fish, and we certainly see this in Egyptian representations with the most detailed example featured in the tomb scenes of astronomer priest Nakht (below left). For seated beneath the chair of Nakht’s wife Tawy, unfettered by any kind of collar or lead, her cat hungrily consumes the fish before it, as does a rather more svelte feline on an ostracon sketch of slightly later date (below). 

Cat consuming a fish beneath chair of Nakht’s wife Tawy in their Theban tomb c.1400 BC (© MMA), with similar version sketched on ostracon c.1300-1200 BC (© Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden)

And it was while compiling these evocative images for our recent ‘Pharaohs’ Creatures’ talk at the Museum of Wigan Life that we suddenly saw one particular piece in a new light. For although this turquoise votive plaque in the nearby collection at Bolton had always been a firm favourite, with its expertly rendered image of a seated cat in black ink detailing its fur, what we’d always considered to be its fine whiskers may alternatively show that the cat is eating a fish whose tail is the only part still visible.   

Seated cat on votive faience plaque from Serabit el-Khadim c.1400 BC (© Bolton Museum)

Made around 1400 BC as a votive offering found in the Sinai shrine of goddess Hathor at Serabit el-Khadim, this was the place the Egyptians mined turquoise and indeed hailed the goddess as ‘Lady of Turquoise’ among her many epithets. Yet with Hathor only one of the female deities linked to felines along with Bastet, Sekhmet, Mafdet and Pakhet, so too Mut, divine wife of Amun-Ra of Karnak and herself strongly linked to images of cats beneath the chairs of women, a safe location enhanced by the presence of food. So given its sacred findspot, our well-fed Bolton cat may well be another aspect of Egypt’s complex religion, made all the more accessible in its portrayal of an everyday sight, a hungry creature simply enjoying its dinner. 

(L) Ivory puppy eating a fish c.1400-1300 BC from Thebes & (R) wooden cosmetic spoon in the form of a dog & fish c.1400 BC from Memphis (both © BM)

It’s certainly reminiscent of a canine version in which a playful puppy, carved from ivory around a similar date, crouches low on its front paws, the same fish tail emerging from its mouth in this case made of bronze (above left). An even more extreme version in wood has the motif in reverse, the dog’s elongated body forming the handle of a cosmetic spoon whose bowl and swivel lid takes the form of a huge fish the dog has by the tail (above right).

Dog eating a goose under Nika-ankh’s chair c.2450 BC, Tihna el-Gebel (L: © cowofgold & R: © basenji-freunde)

And of course, just like cats, dogs were also shown eating meat, a rare example within a domestic setting featuring the dog of Hathor priest Nika-ankh, reclining beneath Nika-ankh’s chair while ‘busily eating a goose’ (above). Yet far more often dogs are portrayed sinking their teeth into meat that they’ve caught themselves, everything from birds small and large to the ibex and gazelle they assist their owners in bringing down during the hunt (below).  

Dog seizing duck by neck from King Montuhotep II’s Deir el-Bahri funerary temple c.2000 BC (© Fitzwilliam Museum) & detail of Hemaka’s game disc, Sakkara, c.3000 BC (© Egyptian Museum Cairo)

And while cats are often shown feeding milk to their young to underline the creature’s connection with the life-giving feline goddess Bastet who very much embodied the nurturing aspects of motherhood, it’s far rarer to find the equivalent figurines of dogs although charming examples of this also exist too (below).

Bronze cat feeds her kittens, from Sakkara c.600-300 BC (© Brooklyn Museum) & painted limestone dog feeds her pups from El-Bersheh c.1900 BC (© Louvre)

And it’s another image of a dog drinking milk which really underlines the care taken by its human owner. Dating from the Old Kingdom Pyramid Age, an adult dog is shown drinking from a bowl while close by a cattle farmer has taken cow’s milk from the jar offered by a colleague, with which he then feeds a pup from his own mouth (the pup often mistaken for a piglet even though he has paws not trotters, see: https://www.academia.edu/544472/Enigmatic_Scenes_of_Intimate_Contact_with_Dogs_in_the_Old_Kingdom).

Farmer feeding cow’s milk to puppy in Saqqara tomb of Vizier Kagemni, c.2300 BC (© kairoinfo4u) & mosaic of dog with upturned wine jug, C.2nd BC, Alexandria (© Rhakotis)

It’s also clear that animals could be portrayed in close proximity to alcohol, recalling the famous legend of Sekhmet the lioness transforming into bovine Hathor after mistaking red wine (or red-dyed beer) for blood then sleeping off its effects (see: https://www.immortalegypt.co.uk/post/wine-in-ancient-egypt-i). As for images, one of the most vivid examples was uncovered in Alexandria back in 1993. Once forming part of the palace flooring of Cleopatra’s Ptolemaic dynasty, it features a terrier-like dog sitting somewhat sheepishly beside a gilded wine jug lying empty on the floor, perhaps in the aftermath of one of the Ptolemies’ legendary banquets honouring Dionysos as their dynasty’s patron, maybe the dog himself responsible for the accident and lapping up any spillages. 

Certainly the Egyptians had already alluded to the connection between animals and alcohol in their comic portrayals of monkeys, a tiny figurine of an adult and its young brewing beer discovered at Amarna again in the Bolton collection while a baboon even helps squeeze the grapes during the winemaking process in tomb scenes at Sakkara (below). 

(L) Figurine of monkeys brewing beer c.1340 BC from Amarna now in Bolton (© ImmortalEgypt), & (R) a baboon helps make wine c.2440 BC in Sakkara tomb of Nefer (© Moussa & Altenmüller)

Of course the Egyptians also portrayed monkeys picking and eating fruit (below), any overripe pieces which had started to ferment producing alcohol (specifically ethanol) and whose smell apparently helps primates find food. So it’s been suggested that “this once-beneficial attraction to and consumption of ethanol at low concentrations may underlie modern human tendencies for alcohol use” in the so-called ‘Drunken Monkey’ hypothesis, certainly helping to explain the rather ‘merry’ behaviour of some of these endearing creatures the Egyptians portrayed so well (below right). 

Monkey eating fruit c.1400 BC (© MMA), with merry monkey in the Sakkara tomb of Ptahmose, Mayor of Memphis c.1270 BC now in Cairo Museum (© A.Guilleux)

And with even mice shown being served goblets of wine by cat servants in the satirical papyri representing the Egyptian world turned upside down in a kind of fantasy land (below left), drunken crocodiles on the other hand were certainly a reality. 

Cats serve wine to a mouse c.1300 BC from Tuna el-Gebel (© Egyptian Museum), priests doing same for sacred crocodile in Roman mosaic from C.1st BC (© Musei Capitolini Centrale Montemartini)

For not only are Egyptian priests portrayed feeding these fearsome creatures in a mosaic from the C.1st BC (above right), Greek historian Strabo describes the things they consumed during his visit to the Fayum region around the very same time. Taken to see the lake of the sacred crocodile “which is fed on grain and pieces of meat and on wine, which are always being fed to it by the foreigners who go to see it”, he then describes how his party turned up with cake, roast meat and “a pitcher of wine mixed with honey. We found the animal lying on the edge of the lake. When the priests went up to it, some of them opened its mouth and another put in the cake, and again the meat, and then poured down the honey mixture. The animal then leaped into the lake and rushed across to the far side. But when another foreigner arrived, likewise carrying offerings, the priests took them, went around the lake in a run, took hold of the animal, and in the same manner fed it what had been brought”, the job of ‘sauretai’ (crocodile keeper) surely made all the more hazardous as a result.

So from inebriated crocodiles and cat food to pig troughs and hedgehog snacks, such details really underline the importance of the animal world to the ancient Egyptians - so why not follow in their footsteps? For if you’ve enjoyed this month’s blog, please consider helping feed our four-legged friends with a small donation, if you can, to a couple of our favourite animal charities, the Sheffield’s Cats Shelter https://thesheffieldcatsshelter.enthuse.com/donateonce#!/ and the Hedgehog Cabin https://hedgehogcabin.info/

Thank you so much!