![]() Hedgehogs have existed alongside ancient Egyptian people since the very earliest periods of sedentary settlement. In Section 6, I propose further links between the ecology and natural behaviours of hedgehogs and their representation in Old Kingdom art as protective creatures. In Section 5, I discuss the orthography of the ancient Egyptian words for hedgehog and hedgehog-head boats in close association with their pictorial representation in Old Kingdom tombs. ![]() I also include possible examples in rock inscriptions (petroglyphs) (Table 3). I contribute new data to the survey of hedgehog-head boats in Old Kingdom tombs (Tables 1 and 2), including a small number from unpublished tombs at Giza recorded in the Digital Giza Archives and at Saqqara courtesy of personal communication with Yvonne Harpur. 554–55 earlier: Tavares 2014) concerning an example of a fragmentary model hedgehog-head boat found at Giza in 2014. 140–41), and Tavares and Malak (in Tavares et al. This article builds upon remarks concerning boats with a hedgehog-head prow ( Igelkopfbug) by e.g., Altenmüller ( 2000, 2005, 2007), Bárta ( 2001, pp. The present article focuses on a small subgroup of the extant corpus-namely, boats with a hedgehog-head prow occurring among votive objects ( Section 4.1) and in funerary art ( Section 4.2)-and considers their meaning specific to the late 3rd Millennium BCE, as these representational forms are not known to be attested later in Egyptian history. 45) sought to establish formal and aesthetic criteria for studying hedgehogs in ancient Egyptian art, in order to stimulate further research and interpretive approaches. This corpus is heavily weighted to evidence from later periods of Egyptian history, from which a greater variety of hedgehog-related objects have survived. The most comprehensive study of hedgehogs in ancient Egypt to date is by Droste zu Hülshoff ( 1980), and all major studies of ancient Egyptian fauna include summaries of representations of hedgehogs in ancient Egyptian art and material culture (e.g., Osborn and Osbornová 1998, pp. The meaning of the ancient Egyptian word ḥnt(j) is also rexamined in relation to the representation of riverine and marsh-water boats in Old Kingdom tombs. An updated list is provided of known representations of hedgehog-head boats, including petroglyphs and as yet unpublished examples from tombs at Giza and Saqqara. This article reassesses the role of hedgehogs as protective or apotropaic entities and their association with boats, considering how ancient Egyptians understood their ecology and their predation of snakes, scorpions, and similar stinging creatures. A similar representation of this motif is the so-called ‘ Henet’-boat (from the word ḥnt) with a hedgehog head at the prow facing inwards, which is found in late Old Kingdom art. 2686–2181 BCE) is a palm-sized modelled boat with a prow in the shape of a hedgehog head, which has been discovered at sites throughout Egypt. A particular votive object of the Old Kingdom (c. In later periods of Egyptian history, rattles, small unguent vessels, and scaraboid amulets were made in their shape, all of which are presumed to have had apotropaic purposes. In tomb reliefs of the late 3rd Millennium BCE, hedgehogs are represented being carried alive by offering bearers or as background participants in desert hunting scenes. Their natural defensive qualities were admired by ancient Egyptians and their bodily parts, notably their hardened spines, were used as ingredients in medico-magical prescriptions. Hedgehogs held a special place in ancient Egyptian life like many other desert- and marsh-dwelling animals.
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