Creatures of Earth, Water, and Sky

Ancient Egyptians always had an intense and complex relationship with animals in daily life as well as in religion. Despite the fact that research on this relationship has been a topic of study, gaps in our knowledge still remain. This volume presents well over 30 contributions that explore Human-Animal relationships from the Predynastic to the Roman period.

The essays cover topics such as animal husbandry, mummification, species-specific studies, the archaeology and economy of the animal cults, funerary practices, iconography and symbolism. The contribution of archaeometrical methods, such as DNA analyses, balms' analyses, AMS dating, radiography, and 3D imaging, are also represented as these play a significant role in furthering our understanding of the human-animal relationship in Egypt.

The range of subject matter and contributors are indicative of the importance of animals and the role that they played in ancient Egypt and Nubia, and emphasises the need for continued inter- and multidisciplinary studies on the subject. The research outlined in this volume has helped, for example, to better identify ways of sourcing the animals used in mummification, contributed to establishing the eras during which animal mummification became common, and highlighted new techniques for acquiring DNA.

The fresh insights and diversity of topics makes the volume of interest for professionals (Egyptologists, (archaeo-)zoologists and historians), as well as those who are interested in Egyptology and in the relationship between humans and animals. 'Creatures of Earth, Water and Sky' is the result of the first international conference ever dedicated to animals in ancient Egypt and Nubia (the International Symposium on Animals in Ancient Egypt, ISAAE 1, June 1-3 2016, held in Lyon).

Contents: Abstracts

Preface
Stéphanie Porcier, Salima Ikram & Stéphane Pasquali

L'exploitation de l'autruche dans l'Égypte ancienne : l'exemple des perles en coquille d'œuf d'autruche
Halima Ali Toybou

Scanning Sobek: Mummy of the Crocodile God
Julie Anderson & Daniel Antoine

Donkey Burials at Tell El-Yahudia
Aiman Ashmawy Ali

À propos des noms d'espèces appartenant au sous-ordre des sauria (lézards) attestés en Égypte ancienne et médiévale : un tour d'horizon zoologique et lexicographique
Sydney H. Aufrère

Early Travellers and the Animal `Mummy Pits' of Egypt: Exploration and Exploitation of the Animal Catacombs in the Age of Early Travel
Tessa T. Baber

From Egyptology to Ornithology: The Cults of Sacred Falcons and The Musée des Confluences' Raptor Mummies
Rozenn Bailleul-LeSuer

Interpreting the Faunal Remains from the Tombs at the Temple of Millions of Years of Amenhotep II in Western Thebes: Funerary Practices, Ritual Practices or, Perhaps, Something Else?
Fabio Bona, Anna Consonni, Tommaso Quirino & Angelo Sesana

Une analyse chimique de la composition de baumes de momies animales égyptiennes conservées au musée des Confluences (Lyon, France)
Manon Bondetti, Stéphanie Porcier, Matthieu Ménager & Cathy Vieillescazes

Économie du culte des animaux sacrés en Égypte hellénistique et romaine
Silvia Bussi

Bœufs d'Égypte, bœufs du Soudan : une morphologie différente ?
Louis Chaix

L'étude des momies animales du musée des Confluences à Lyon. L'exemple des momies de poissons
Alain Charron

Des chiens et des bandelettes
Françoise Dunand, Roger Lichtenberg, Cécile Callou & Fleur Letellier-Willemin

Trapping Baqet's Rat
Linda Evans

De la valeur emblématique des droma