ancient egypt: history and culture
Ancient Egyptian bestiary: Giraffes
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Giraffes

Source:
Giraffe
 
Excerpt from the Giraffe Palette
Excerpt from the Giraffe Palette
    According to petroglyphs found in the Sahara, giraffes used to be indigenous to North Africa, but apparently had died out by historical times.
 
    In the Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor a giraffe's tail is one of the valuable gifts the mariner receives from the lord of the island.
    In a demotic story giraffes are counted among the mountain animals
... the house supervisor saw animals of the mountain which were numerous ////// heat, giraffe, gazelle, hyaena, [///], deer, [corresponding (?) to] the beasts ///// the pharaoh sitting among the animals without them being able to see him.
Saqqara Demotic Papyri I, Text 02,
Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae website

    In the Book of the Dead there are occasionally daemons called Giraffe:
The god who guards you, his name is Giraffe (mmj). His name came into existence when no cedar tree had grown yet, no acacia had come into being and no metal had been created in his mountain land.
or in the pTurin Museo Egizio 1791
Fan-Lion-Giraffe (srj) is your name.

 

 
 
- -Eastern Desert Rock Art: giraffes (Brian Yare's site)
© 2005
Update: August 2006
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