From Room 2:  Birds as Resources for Human Use

Art By the time the Sphinx was buried up to its head in sand, Horemheb was a royal scribe and a military general. Though not of royal blood, he became the last king of Egypt’s Eighteenth Dynasty. He was buried in Thebes (c. 1350 BCE) in tomb KV57. This scene was painted on one of its walls. Art historians have pointed out that the chief fowler (the man who appears to be whistling to the pelicans, who are standing beside baskets of their eggs) roughly mimics the figure of the squatting man in the hieroglyphic (just beyond his right hand).[23]

Science The Nile lies on a major migratory flyway, and the ancient Egyptians are thought to have had a close relationship with birds--both wild and domesticated. They were aware of seasonal migrations. They could differentiate between resident (nonmigratory) and migratory species, and they recorded various aspects of natural history. The domestication of birds there is a very old practice, one that even predates the dynasties, and ancient images show the use of herons as decoys to attract wetland birds into open traps, and the force-feeding of cranes and waterfowl. But the decision to feature pelicans (Pelecanus sp.) and their eggs in a tomb is puzzling. The pelican is said to have represented protection against snakes and safe passage after death, but since the chief fowler accompanies the pelicans here, perhaps they represent a valued resource for Horemheb in the underworld. If so, the image also suggests that pelicans were domesticated--which would be surprising.

Ducks, geese, pigeons, quails, and occasional chickens--all of which breed rapidly--were the principal domesticated fowl in ancient Egypt. It seems odd that the Egyptians would also choose to domesticate pelicans, which ordinarily lay only two eggs in each breeding season. But here is a fowler, apparently a person with an official function, superintending a group of pelicans. Pelicans are excellent fish catchers; perhaps some ancient Egyptians domesticated them for the same purpose that Japanese fishermen traditionally used Japanese Cormorants (Phalacrocorax capillatus), fitted with a restrictive collar, to catch fish. In fact, a pelican, a fish-clutching cormorant, and a group of fishermen hauling laden nets are included in an ancient Egyptian bas-relief (the mastaba of Mereruka), which was produced during the Sixth Dynasty (2345–2181 BCE), 1,000 years before Horemheb. In the bas-relief, neither bird has a collar, so perhaps fishermen merely watched them during foraging dives to see where to cast their nets. On the other hand, the baskets in this painting contain a lot of eggs, suggesting that they were a delicacy suitable for a pharaoh. Few pelicans are represented in Egyptian art, perhaps because they were more often admired and raised by commoners, thus keeping them off the walls of nobles’ tombs. Why, then, are they here? Horemheb--unlike most Egyptian kings--was not of royal blood. Perhaps the pelicans are present as a special recognition of his history.

Ancient Science Art provides abundant room for speculation, but in the end it often leaves a mystery--in this case, one that perhaps future Egyptologists will solve. Some might see speculation as an inherent weakness of Science Art. We see it as an invitation to delve deeper into both the image and the science, to find out why the artist appears to have portrayed the shaggy-plumed Dalmatian Pelican (Pelecanus crispus), now a rare winter visitor to Egypt, rather than a White Pelican (P. onocrotalus) or a Pink-backed (P. refescens), which are also winter visitors; why grass appears below and above the eggs; whether two of the pelicans are preening or performing a courtship ritual; why priests were apparently forbidden to eat pelican meat; and, for that matter, why anyone would enjoy eating the fishy-tasting meat and comparably fishy-tasting eggs.[24]

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