It’s a dog’s life in ancient Egypt – animal trails and puppy dog tails in the Egypt Centre

This blog post has been written by Sam Powell, with a contribution by Hannah Sweetapple on our Awesome Animals workshop.

Those of you that are regular readers of Ken’s blog will be aware of the Egypt Centre Online Collection, a project I’ve been working on with the Egypt Centre and which had a soft launch last October. Since then, we have worked hard to continue to update the descriptions for each of the nearly six thousand objects, adding new images, videos, and new information, such as lost Wellcome numbers and auction details on almost a daily basis. In addition, several trails have been added to the site, allowing an exploration of some of the objects based around differing themes. These can be viewed either within the gallery on a mobile device, or from the comfort of your own home. There is also the option to read the trail comment, or listen to an audio version of the text, depending on your preference.

Fig. 1: The Animal trail aimed at our younger audiences

When developing the trails, I was very keen to tailor some specifically for “junior Egyptologists” to engage our younger audiences. The first trail I worked on was centred around some of the highlights of the Animals case in the House of Life (fig. 1). I chose thirteen different animals, including a mummified crocodile (W985), a statue of an ibis (W1048), and a stone dish in the shape of a fish (W1020). The accompanying descriptions for the trail were designed with lots of fun facts and open-ended questions encouraging the audience to form their own ideas about the objects. In addition to the written text, I also decided to ask my young friends Noah and Matilda Barton to record the accompanying audios for the trail to make them more engaging for children (Matilda was studying ancient Egypt at school at the time, and submitted her recordings as her half term homework, and both have previously attended Egypt Centre workshops). The trail has been very well received and has been viewed nearly three hundred times!

Fig. 2: Don’t forget to book for the Awesome Animals Family Workshop

We were so pleased with this format of distilling information and how much people enjoyed this trail that we decided to use this as the trial for adding information in both Welsh and Egyptian. Over the Easter Holidays (running 27th March until 11th April), the Egypt Centre will be running a brand-new online workshop for families focusing on animals of ancient Egypt (fig. 2). The Awesome Animals workshop will look at the animals that lived in ancient Egypt, their links to ancient Egyptian religion, and the most dangerous animals. The workshop consists of a whole host of drop-in activities including crafts, stories, a live introduction, and much more. For more information and to book, visit: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/144176643221  

Today is quite a monumental day for the Egypt Centre as we are please to announce that our An Introduction to Ancient Egyptian Animals for Junior Egyptologists trail is now available in both Welsh (fig. 3) and Arabic (fig. 4). These versions, Cyflwyniad i Anifeiliaid yr Hen Aifft ar Gyfer Eifftolegwyr Ifanc and مقدمة عن الحيوانات في مصر القديمه لطلبة علم المصريات can all be viewed under the Junior Trails tab in the Online Collection. Funding permitting, the hope is to eventually present the entire Egypt Centre Online Collection in a trilingual format to increase accessibility. We are very grateful to Abby Richards-Williams (one of the Egypt Centre’s young volunteers) for the Welsh translation and audio recordings, and to Aida Gadallah and Sam Sanmarkos for the translation into Egyptian. Thanks also to Iris Meijer for arranging the latter.

Fig. 3: Welsh version of the Animals trail

At the Egypt Centre last week, we were also lucky to have a Curator’s Chat from Dr Carolyn Graves-Brown, which examined the topic of dogs in ancient Egypt (ably assisted by her beautiful greyhounds). This talk proved very popular with several guest appearances from dogs in the audience (and a few cats as well!). Carolyn started with a chronological overview of the evidence of canines from the earliest evidence of dog sacrifices, the iconography of dogs under chairs, and dog mummies as votive offerings. She also discussed whether we really can apply our modern Western perception of pets to the past. I would like to think the evidence suggests that we can; many examples of dogs with names suggest affection, and tender burials that to me can only be interpreted as devotion to a beloved companion.

Fig. 4: Arabic version of our Animals trail

As someone with three dogs myself, I particularly liked the quote from a Middle Kingdom official who describes himself as “an iwiw dog who sleeps under the canopy, a dog of the bed whom his mistress loves.” Carolyn then finished up with a look at some of the canine depictions within the Egypt Centre (fig. 5).

Fig. 5: Some of the Egypt Centre objects depicting canines from Carolyn’s Curator’s Chat 

 

In summary, there’s been a lot of animal activity going on at the Egypt Centre recently for a wide range of audiences. I’d like to pass on my thanks to all of our contributors to the trails, the fantastic team behind the family workshops, and to Carolyn. In light of the one-year anniversary of the UK’s first lockdown beginning, I’d also like to say a big thank you to all of our pets who’ve been extremely patient with having their humans stuck at home with them all day (fig. 6)!

Fig. 6: My eldest dog Noodle Zoomed out after yet another day of Egyptology