Take a look.

Awwwwwwww . . . . .  but as a female mammal, I must say Thank God the little darlings are born SANS horns. *Shudder*.

The breed is also called Egyptian longhorn, but before I even got to this detail in the article, I was struck by how closely these cattle resemble the cattle Egyptians actually depicted in and on their tombs:

Photo by Gérard Ducher, distributed under a Creative Commons attribution license. Click image for link.

The cow second from left looks a lot like Belle. This model is from an incredible collection found in the the Middle Egyptian tomb of a noble called Meketre who died ca. 2000 B.C. In his tomb in a secret room that tomb robbers missed were found intricate dollhouse-like models of soldiers marching, sailors rowing, brewers brewing, bakers baking, or Meketre himself counting his cattle. Meketre had all these models placed in his tomb so all these things could happen for him in the next world. Together, they form an intimate, detailed snapshot of daily life in ancient Egypt. If you’re ever at the Met in New York City, don’t miss their share of the collection.

Here’s the nobleman Sennedjem with Egyptian cattle as seen on his tomb wall:

The artisan Sennedjem plows heavenly fields on his tomb wall. Ca. reign of Seti I/Ramesses II, 1200s B.C.

I’ve always loved those splotchy cattle with the big horns I see in Egyptian art. It’s nice to know that even though the builders of the pyramids and their culture are long gone, their cattle, at least, live on.

And while we’re on the subject of animals in Egyptian art, I’ve also been struck by the contrast between the formal, stiff poses Egyptian artists used to depict humans, and the Audubon-esque naturalism with which they sometimes precociously depicted animals. They had a keen eye for detail, as you can see in this painting of geese made almost 5,000 years ago during the Old Kingdom.

Geese painted in the tomb of Nefermaat and his wife Atet during the reign of the triple-pyramid building Pharaoh (and Ladies' Man) Snefru, ca. 2600 B.C.

Just for the record, this panel of geese (not all are shown here) may be my favorite work of Egyptian art ever. Its simplicity, attention to detail, balance — and may I say grace? — are timeless. As far as I know, no other culture came close to this level of artistic excellence and realism for several thousand years (though hard to know, since most ancient art has gone way of dodo). This was a first for the world. And, one might also argue, for scientific illustration.

Hope you enjoyed a little art history and Egyptology with your biology. We’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming tomorrow.

Jen