Animal Behaviour in Egyptian Art: Representations of the Natural World in Memphite Tomb Scenes (Australian Centre for Egyptology Studies)

Egyptian animal imagery has long been admired for its beauty and morphological accuracy, but the postures and activities of depicted species have received less attention. Animal Behaviour in Egyptian Art takes a unique approach by documenting the way in which mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, amphibians, and insects are shown behaving in Old Kingdom tomb scenes from Giza and Saqqara and then comparing these representations with current zoological knowledge of contemporary fauna. This comprehensive study reveals that the Egyptians were acutely aware of the natural behaviour of many different species and that their artists found ingenious ways to depict this within the constraints of their idiosyncratic method of representation.