Egypt Exploration Society

The Owls in Ancient Egypt

Author(s): Percy E. Newberry
Source: The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 37 (Dec., 1951), pp. 72-74
Published by: Egypt Exploration Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3855158
Accessed: 12-04-2015 12:09 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content
in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.
For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Egypt Exploration Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of Egyptian
Archaeology.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 132.239.1.231 on Sun, 12 Apr 2015 12:09:31 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 (72)

THE OWLS IN ANCIENT EGYPT'

By the late PERCY E. NEWBERRY
MEINERTZHAGEN
(Nicoll's Birds of Egypt, 349-64) records eight species of Owl from
Egypt and Sinai, and Lortet and Gaillard (La Faune momifieede l'ancienneEgypte,
167-70) claim to have identified from mummified remains six species. Meinertzhagen
(p. 74), however, questions the accuracyof these identificationsand considers it doubt-
ful whether some of the closely allied forms in the list can be distinguished by examina-
tion of the somewhat unsatisfactory remains so often presented by mummies. Sir
GardnerWilkinson (Mannersand Customsof the AncientEgyptians,III, 51) recognized
three species figured on the monuments: (i) the Eagle Owl; (2) the Barn or White
Owl; and (3) the Small Owl. Griffith (Hieroglyphs,p. 20o)noted that the type used for
the hieroglyph ~ m 'varies but is not long-eared until very late times'; this has now
been found to be incorrect, for the type invariably employed in the Protodynastic
period is the Eagle Owl and this bird occurs sporadically from Dyn. III throughout
dynastic times. From Dyn. III the common type for the hieroglyph m is the Barn Owl.2
Gardiner (Eg. Gramm.,pp. 27. 460) named the bird $ of his hieroglyphic fount 'the
Eagle Owl-Bubo ascalaphus',but it has no ears and is clearlythe Barn Owl.3 The third
species mentioned by Wilkinson-the Small Owl-is round-headed and only appears
in texts of the Saite and Ptolemaic periods. All three owls, unlike other birds figured
as hieroglyphs, are drawn with body in profile and head full-faced. In one fowling
scene from a Dyn. XVIII tomb at Thebes two Barn Owls are depicted in a papyrus
marsh;4one is representedwith wings outspread,the other is figured three-quarterface
standing upon its nest which is full of eggs.
In linear hieroglyphic writing the Owl is generally 'eared' and is represented either
erect or squatting.
In hieratic writing the Eagle and the Barn Owls are distinctly differentiated. ZL is
the Eagle Owl and I the Barn Owl. The first is the only form used in the Old Kingdom
and is common in the Middle Kingdom, but after Dyn. XVIII rarely occurs except in
ligatures. M6ller (HieratischePalaeographie,I, no. 196) incorrectly gives ~L as the
Barn Owl and a as the same bird 'abgekiirtze Form'. This last form does not appear
before Dyn. XI and is derived from the Barn Owl with its legs cut off J, see inter alia,
de Morgan, Dahchour, go, and note the rare form with legs , (Moller, op. cit. II,
I An article originally intended for publication in the volume of EA dedicated to Sir Alan Gardiner, and
found by Mr. I. E. S. Edwards among the late Professor Newberry's papers.
2
Cottevieille-Giraudet, Rapport sur les Fouilles de Medamoud, 1931, asserts that the Small Owl is the pro-
totype of the hieroglyph m, but this bird is round-headed and never appears before Dyn. XXVI.
3 In the second edition of the Grammar, p. 469, the sign is described simply as 'owl' and reference is made
in n. i to Professor Newberry's identification with the Barn Owl. (ED.)
4 Cailliaud, Voyage a Meroe, II, pi. 75. This scene is now in the Louvre, see Vandier, Les antiquitesegyptiennes
au Muse'edu Louvre, p. 64, pi. 14, 2.

This content downloaded from 132.239.1.231 on Sun, 12 Apr 2015 12:09:31 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 THE OWLS IN ANCIENT EGYPT 73
no. 196, Gurob). After Dyn. XXII the hieratic form 'L disappears except in certain
ligatures mentioned below. Griffith (Hieroglyphs,p. 20) drew attention to the curious
use of A in Pyr. 962-3 where it stands as determinative of jIs hsk 'chop off' the
head or limb, while in Pyr. 635 I' is the symbol of the same word. 'Perhaps',wrote
Griffith, 'this points to the Owl being a bird of ill omen, which it was desirable to
behead when caught.' It is remarkablethat when mummified Eagle Owls have been
examined all have been beheaded.2
The hieratic for - is iZ at Hatnub (Anthes, Hatnub, 22, I I, Dyn. X or XI) but from
Dyn. XII onwards it is invariably ligatured , (M6ller, op. cit. I, no. ix). Note that
Moller, op. cit. III, no. vi should be corrected to A. From the Old Kingdom onwards
the ligature for - is written with the 'eared' bird except in one instance, Sinuhe B 45,
where the Barn Owl occurs. In the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus o0, 8, and 59, i,
y=_, and = : similar 'eared' forms appear in later manuscripts (M6ller,
op. cit. iii, no. ix).
Champollion (Precis du Systeme hierogl. 312; Dict. Egyptien, 139) noted that the
Coptic name of the Owl named VVKTOKOpa4by the Greeks, is juoya^f , and Griffith
(Hieroglyphs,p. 20) suggested that, to account for the phonetic value of the hieroglyph
s m, this is possibly a compound of which the first element m (?) represents the
ancient name of the bird. Sethe (Der Ursprungdes Alphabet, 153) gives iuoty 'Eule'
without query-mark,but the word is not recognized by Crum in his CopticDictionary.
The name of the Eagle Owl in the Demotic Magical Papyrus of London and Leiden,
24, 3'; 27, 9 is (/41/j2rmwld.Here the determinativeof the bird is 'eared' but its legs
are omitted: this sign is obviously derived from the linear hieroglyphic form ~. It
is employed in the same demotic document as determinative of several bird-names--
byn 'heron', bk 'falcon', nsr 'vulture', hb 'ibis', kwkwpt'hoopoe', etc.-where it replaces
the older generic determinative 5, though this sign is retainedin writing smnw'goose'.
It is interesting to note in this connexion that in the enigmaticalwriting system of the
New Kingdom ~ replaces $ for some unknown reason.3
In the Cairo Museum there is a schist palette No. 142384 which records the dis-
mantlement of seven Predynastic Western Delta fortresses by Upper and Middle
Egyptian chieftains. The first fortress bore the name ~ 'Eagle Owl-city'. No Owl-city
is recorded on later monuments and it is only in the light of what is known of the
history of the predynastic period that any hint can be obtained as to its identification.
It is the largest of the seven cities figured and that it was the most importantis shown by
its being attacked by the Falcon chieftain, the leader of the allied clans of the south.
At least four of the cities were situated in the Western Delta and the olive-trees of
Tjhenu-land adjoining the Western Delta are shown on the reverse of the palette
among the booty captured in the campaign. I suggest that Owl-city was the capital
of the region conquered and that it was the seat of the early rulers who wore the Red

Note also c? on the Palermo Stone (Schaefer, Ein Bruchstiick altigyptischcr Annalen, i6).
2 Lortet and Gaillard, op. cit. 167.
3
ZAS, 1874, Renouf, IoI-5; Renouf, Life Work, IIn, I2I, I25; Grapow, ZAS 72, 27.
4 PSBA 22, pi. 5.

This content downloaded from 132.239.1.231 on Sun, 12 Apr 2015 12:09:31 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
74 PERCY E. NEWBERRY
Crown, some of whose names are preserved in the uppermost register of the Palermo
Stone. This capital was Sais and its ruler immediately before the foundation of the
Monarchy by Narmer Menes was Neithotpe whose royal seal' definitely proves that
she was ruler in her own right of the Saite region. Her name Neithotpe 'Neith-is-
satisfied' suggests her Saite origin and it is written within a palace-facade sign sur-
mounted by the slender parrying shield with crossed arrows. It may be that Tjhenu-
land also formed part of the region Neithotpe governed. It is known from another early
monument that the district of Tjhenu-land was conquered by Narmer Menes.2 The
deity of the country was - s or -= Sv;, the earliest name of Seth. Some of the

queens of the First Dynasty were entitled ), 'j 'She who sees Horus and Seth'.
This identification of Sais with Owl-city is of great historical interest, for Neith,
its goddess, was generally known to the Greeks as Athena, and a late tradition records
that Athens was founded by a colony from Sais.3 Athena's sacred bird was the owl,4
and that bird and a spray of olive appear on the earliest coins of Athens. The oAoAvyr
chant which was proper to the worship of Athena (Homer, II. vi, 297-301) was cer-
tainly in imitation of an owl, the ulula of the Romans. Herodotus, iv, 189, says that
to his thinking this ceremonial chant 'first took its rise in Libya, for the women of that
country chant very tunefully'. It has been said that Athena's bird was never an 'eared'
owl,5 but it is represented with ears on a kantharosin the National Museum, Copen-
hagen.6
De Morgan, Ethnographieprehistorique,fig. 559. 2 PSBA 22, pl. 5.
3 Cf. Wiedemann, Herodots Zweites
Buch, 258 ff.
4
According to the scholiast on Aristophanes, Aves, 515, the owl was appropriated to Athena Archegetis.
5 D'Arcy Thompson, Glossary of Greek Birds, 46.
6
Figured by Nilsson, The Minoan-Mycenaean Religion, 423.

This content downloaded from 132.239.1.231 on Sun, 12 Apr 2015 12:09:31 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions