June 30, 1904] 



NA TURE 



SOME AXCIEXT MAMMAL PORTRAITS. 

 ^/TiRY little attention appears to have been hitherto de- 

 voted to the correct identification of the wild animals 

 represented in the ancient Assyrian and Babylonian sculp- 

 tures, and in the frescoes of Egypt under the Pharaohs. 

 Antiquarians and Egyptologists seem in the main to have 

 contented themselves with calling an animal a gazelle, an 

 antelope, or a deer, without the slightest attempt to ascer- 

 tain whether such titles are correctly bestowed, and in some 

 cases utterly oblivious of the fact that deer (with the ex- 

 ception of the Barbary red deer and the fallow-deer in 

 Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco) are quite unknown in the 

 African continent. A remarkable instance of this occurs in 

 a comparatively recent publication of the Egypt Explor- 

 ation Fund, forming the eighth memoir of the Archae- 

 ological Survey of Egypt, entitled " The Mastaba of 

 Ptahhetep ... at Saggareh. Part i. The Chapel of 

 Ptahhetep and the Hieroglyphs," by N. de G. Davies. 

 Here a plate depicting a number of antelopes and goats 

 is lettered " The Deer — East Wall." A moment's consult- 

 ation with a naturalist friend would, of course, have saved 

 the author from this absurd error. 



Many of the animals represented in the sculptures and 

 frescoes are obviously mythical ; but others equallv clearly 

 represent species then living- in the country, and these are 

 for the most part so well and characteristically represented, 

 that in many cases there is little or no difficulty in identify- 

 ing the species to which they belong. Apart from the 

 intrinsic interest of identifying the various species portrayed, 



a certain amount of 

 information may at 

 the same time be 

 obtained with re- 

 gard to the former 

 distribution of the 

 species in question, 

 so that the investi- 

 gation of the subject 

 has considerable 

 scientific interest. 



With these few 

 preliminary observ- 

 ations, I proceed at 

 once to the consider- 

 ation of such figures 

 as I have been able 

 to identify with 

 more or less cer- 

 tainty, merely add- 

 ing that these for 

 the most part re- 

 IJresent ungulates, the portraits of Carnivora being far 

 more difficult to assign to their respective species. 



Commencing with the above mentioned figures from the 

 east wall of the Chapel of Ptahhetep, for copies of which 

 I am indebted to Mr. F. LI. Griffith, the editor of the 

 publication cited, there is no difficulty in identifying Fig. i 

 with the .\rabian, or Nubian, ibex (Capra nubiana). 

 Although the knotted ridges on their front surfaces are 

 not shown, the circular sweep of the horns is unmistakable, 

 while further evidence for the specific identification is 

 afforded by the long and pointed beard on the chin. It is, 

 however, somewhat remarkable that in another represent- 

 ation of the same animal, from a hunting-scene on the east 

 wall of this chapel, the beard is omitted ; possiblv one figure 

 represents the animal in the summer dress, and the other 

 in the winter coat. The shortness of the tail in both 

 figures may be cited as a further instance of the artist's 

 fidelity to nature. 



Equally unmistakable and characteristic is the portrait of 

 the aoul, or .Soemmerring's gazelle (Gazella socmmerringi), 

 which is reproduced in Fig. 2. The characteristic inward 

 curvature of the tips of the horns is remarkably well shown, 

 although the relative length of these appendages appears to 

 he somewhat exaggerated. Contrasted with the figure of 

 the ibex, the gazelle-like slenderness and length of limb, 

 as well as the lightness of the whole build, are remarkably 

 well brought out in this portrait. The short tail is also 

 a characteristic gazelle feature. Soemmerring's gazelle, it 

 may be observed, is still fairly abundant in Upper Nubia, 



NO. 1809, ^'OL. 70] 



-Nubi.in ibex, from 1 

 Chapel. 



—Soemmerring's gazelle, 

 the Ptahhetep Chapel. 



and in past times may have been found much lower down 

 the Nile delta. 



The next three figures from the Ptahhetep Chapel re- 

 present long-tailed antelopes. Of these, the one shown in 

 Fig. 3 is, I take it, probably the lesser kudu {Strepsiccros 

 imberbis). if not this, the .'Vbyssinian bushbuck {Tragelaphus 

 scriptus) ; the length 

 and strong twist of 

 the horns render it, 

 however, probable that 

 the picture is intended 

 for the former animal. 

 The absence of a tuft 

 of hair on the throat, 

 as well as the relative 

 size of the drawing 

 and the narrowness of 

 the ears, clearly show 

 that the portrait is not 

 intended for the 

 greater, or true, kudu. 

 Neither the lesser kudu 

 nor the bushbuck are 

 now known from Eg_\pt, 

 although they occur in 

 Somaliland, Abyssinia, 

 and probably Kordo- 

 fan. The abundant 



hairing of the lower part of the tail is clearly indicated in 

 the figure. 



From the spiral twist and length of the backwardly sweep- 

 ing horns, the stout build, and the length of the tail, there 

 can be little doubt that the animal portrayed in Fig. 4 is 

 an addax (Addax nasomactilatus), a species of antelope met 

 with at the present day throughout the desert tracts of 

 northern .\frica. The artist, it will be noticed, has made 

 the profile of the face markedly concave, and thereby 

 different from that of any of the other antelopes depicted. 



Equally characteristic of the north African desert zone 

 is the white, or sabre-horned, oryx {Oryx leucoryx), which 

 differs from the other members of its tribe by the long 

 horns sweeping backwards in a bold and graceful curve, 

 instead of rising nearly straight up from the forehead. 

 These features, as well as the long and thickly haired tail, 

 are clearlv represented in the portrait reproduced in Fig. 5, 

 which mav unhesitatingly be admitted to indicate the species 

 in question. The white oryx is still a comparatively common 

 antelope in the deserts of Upper Nubia and Kordofan. 

 From the nearly straight and more strongly ringed horns, a 

 figure of another antelope in the hunting-scene on the east 

 wall of the Ptahhetep Chapel is intended, I think, for the 

 beisa oryx (Oryx 

 hcisa), which ranges 

 from the Red Sea 

 littoral in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Suakim 

 through .\byssinia to 

 Somaliland and north- 

 east Africa generally. 



Antelopes of other 

 kinds, including some 

 of the smaller gazelles, 

 are recognisable on 

 various Egyptian fres- 

 coes, but their exact 

 specific determination 

 is difficult or im- 

 possible. Cattle are 

 frequently depicted, but 

 all appear to be 

 domesticated animals, 

 none of which belong 

 to the humped breed, 



now so common in .Africa. Camels are occasionally repre- 

 sented, but there is nothing to show that these indicate the 

 existence of this animal in a wild state in the country at 

 that date ; most probably, indeed, they are domesticateij 

 specimens. Very interesting, in a scene representing 

 tribute-bearers from Cush (Goss's " Ancient Egypt," p. 

 37), is the portrait of a giraffe with a dog-faced baboon 

 clinging to its throat. Curiously enough, the giraffe is 



1 the Ptahhetep 



