Between Heaven and Earth: Birds in Ancient Egypt

Issued in conjunction with an exhibit at the Oriental Institute Museum at the University of Chicago, this is the first comprehensive study of birds in ancient Egyptian society, economy, art, and religion. Essays address the role of birds in the religious landscape, their use in hieroglyphic and Coptic scripts, birds as protective symbols, as decorative motifs, and as food. A group of essays on "Egyptian Birds and Modern Science" presents the newest forensic research on bird mummies. Other articles address bird behavior as shown in Egyptian art and the present state of avifauna in the Nile Valley. The catalog describes forty artifacts, many of which are previously unpublished. An index of bird species makes this volume useful for naturalists as well as for Egyptologists and art historians.

Table of Contents

Foreword. Gil J. Stein
Preface. Jack Green
List of Contributors
Introduction. Rozenn Bailleul-LeSuer
Time Line of Egyptian History
Map of Principal Areas and Sites
Part I. The Revered and the Hunted: The role of Birds in Ancient Egyptian Society
1. From Kitchen to Temple: The Practical Role of Birds. Rozenn Bailleul-LeSuer
2. The Role of Birds within the Religious Landscape of Ancient Egypt. Foy Scalf
3. An Eternal Aviary: Bird Mummies from Ancient Egypt. Salima Ikram
4. Sheltering Wings: Birds as Symbols of Protection in Ancient Egypt. Randy Shonkwiler
5. Pharaoh Was a Good Egg, but Whose Egg Was He? Arielle Kozloff
6. Birds in the Ancient Egyptian and Coptic Alphabets. Francois Gaudard
7. Birds and Bird Imagery in the Book of Thoth. Richard Jasnow
8. Birds in Late Antique Egypt. Susan H. Auth
Part II. Ancient Egyptian Birds and Modern Science
9. Bird Identification from Art, Artifacts, and Hieroglyphs: An Ornithologist's Viewpoint. John Wyatt
10. Bird Behavior in Ancient Egyptian Art. Linda Evans
11. Studying Avian Mummies at the KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology, University of Manchester: Past, Present, and Future Work. Lidija M. McKnight
12. Medical CT Scanning of Ancient Bird Mummies. Bin Jiang, MD, and Michael Vannier, MD
13. Challenges in CT Scanning of Avian Mummies. Charles A. Pelizzari, Chad R. Haney, Rozenn Bailleul-LeSuer, J. P. Brown, and Christian Wietholt
14. Terahertz Pulse Imaging of an Egyptian Bird Mummy. J. Bianca Jackson, Gérard Mourou, Julien Labaune, and Michel Menu
Part III. Epilogue
15. The Avifauna of the Egyptian Nile Valley: Changing Times. Sherif Baha el Din
Part IV. Catalog
Birds in Creation Myths
Pharaoh the Living Horus and His Avian Subjects
Birds as Protection in Life
Fowling in the Marshes and Aviculture
Nina Davies's Facsimiles from the Painted Tomb-Chapel of Nebamun
Bird Motifs in Ancient Egyptian Arts and Crafts
Birds in the Writing System
Birds in the Religious Life of Ancient Egyptians
Birds in Death and the Afterlife
Appendix: Bird Anatomy
Concordance of Museum Registration Numbers
Checklist of the Exhibit
List of Birds
Bibliography