Das Tier im Alten Agypten.

• Author: Quack, Joachim Friedrich
• Position: Book Review

By PHILIPPE GERMOND. Munich: HIRMER VERLAG, 2001. Pp. 223, illus. 79.76 [euro].

It is well known how important animals were in ancient Egypt, and there has been quite a bit of scholarly work done concerning different aspects of their role. The thorny problem of sacred animals has recently received additional attention and a controversial new interpretation. Research on the date of domestication of various species still continues, with the question of early cattle breeding in the Sahara region being a bone of contention.

The book under review seeks to convey the results of Egyptological research to the general public. As a popular publication, it does not indulge in the luxury of detailed references and footnotes, but does present a concise bibliography. The text is very readable and at the same time accurate, summarizing well the current state of knowledge. The major divisions of the book are the following: introduction (pp. 10-35), profane world (pp. 36-117), sacred world (pp. 118-209), humorous animal depictions (pp. 210-11), a table of gods and their animal forms (pp. 212-16), a chronological chart (pp. 217-19), and bibliography (pp. 220-21). Finally, there is an alphabetical index of the monuments depicted.

The reviewer would especially like to signal his agreement with Germond, who (pp. 40-45) interprets the hunting scenes as symbols for the overpowering of enemies, which is preferable to the view proposed especially by Westendorf that they have a sexual connotation. There is one specific point of disagreement to be voiced. Germond dates the introduction of the camel in Egypt to the Islamic period (p. 34), but this is far too late. See most recently A. Kurth, "The Exploitation of the Camel in the Nee-Assyrian Empire," in Studies on Ancient Egypt in Honour of H. S. Smith, ed. Anthony Leahy and John Tait (London, 1999), 179-84. I would add that the word for camel in Demotic and Coptic (derived from a Semitic language) shows inner-Egyptian sound changes that preclude its being introduced later than the seventh century B.C.

Obviously, the illustrations comprise a very important part of this book. They have been well chosen and almost all of them are of very good quality. Most seem to have been commissioned especially for this publication, so they really constitute additional primary sources. As such, especially because of the great number of close-ups, they cart on occasion also be of use for the specialist. For the general reader they...