New lights on the camel in ancient Egyptian art

Ammar, Hosny

doi:10.21608/jguaa.2012.2806

New lights on the camel in ancient Egyptian art

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Hosny Ammar

Faculty Member, Faculty of Archeology - Cairo University (Egypt)

10.21608/jguaa.2012.2806

Abstract

The camel was considered the ship of the desert because of its high ability to adapt to desert life and travel long distances, due to the physiological properties that God loved that help it store food and drink on the one hand, and endure hunger and thirst for a long time on the other hand. Therefore, God Almighty made it a sign in the creation, so He said in the precise verses: “Do they not look at the camels, how they were created".
The image of the camel is one of the rare animal figures in ancient Egyptian art, which may have appeared due to the presence of this animal in the deserts of Egypt or in its south, or as a result of the Egyptians' contact with their Asian neighbors, especially in the northwest of the
Arabian Peninsula. This body appeared at different times in the Egyptian arts, whether in inscriptions and rock drawings or in the form of dolls and small statues. However, the dating of some of these artworks is still disputed among researchers, especially with regard to the historical periods prior to the Greco-Roman era.
Most of the artworks depicting camels are small statues or rock drawings that are difficult to date in light of the absence of the camel’s image in the inscriptions on the walls of ancient Egyptian tombs and temples, in addition to the late appearance of the name of the camel in ancient Egyptian texts.

Main Subjects

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