Bos aegyptiacus
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| iEgyptian Cattle | ||||||||||||||||
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Extinct (New Kingdom)
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| Bos aegyptiacus Urbain, 1937 |
The Ancient Egyptian cattle Bos aegyptiacus (name not recognized by ITIS) was a domesticated form of ox of uncertain origin. The earliest evidence of Bos aegyptiacus is from the Fayum region, dating back to the 8th millennium BC.
Unlike other species of ox, B. aegyptiacus did not have a hump. It had either large widespread horns, which arched first inward and then outward or shorter horns which had the same structure. According to Egyptian art, B. aegyptiacus was coloured either black, brown, brown and white, white spotted, black and white, or white.
It is uncertain as to where B. aegyptiacus originated, as some claim that it was acquired from the Levant or Mesopotamia while others claim that it was domesticated from a unique North African subspecies of the Aurochs, Bos primigenius mauretanicus. There is evidence for both sides as cattle had been domesticated in the Levant by the 8th millennium BC but excavations of early Holocene western Sahara show that indigenous cattle existed previous to the 8th millennium. mauretanicus
Regardless, B. aegyptiacus was of great importance to the Ancient Egyptians who put it out to pasture on land that was unfarmable, either because it was too far from the Nile to irrigate or in the Nile Delta (and thus too wet to farm). B. aegyptiacus was used for food, milk, leather, and sacrifice.
B. aegyptiacus came to be considered so important that many Egyptian gods were considered to have the form of B. aegyptiacus, notable deities being Hathor, Ptah (as the Apis Bull), Menthu (as the Bukha bull), and Atum-Ra (as the Mnevis Bull). Many were mummified.
During the New Kingdom the Zebu, a hump-backed cattle from Syria was introduced to Egypt and the B. aegyptiacus seems to have slowly been replaced by this new cattle.
