Animals rituals in ancient Egypt. Part A
No wonder if the Hieroglyphic characters are in general to represent animals or portions of animal bodies as it belonged to a civilization is African in its core . Back to the early beginnings of the Egyptian cultures the flora and fauna were still rich as Egypt seemed to have a variety of wild animals as for African lions and panthers. Then the gradual change for the global climate such as having more of droughts and dryness had effected the northern African environment which forced many of savannah wild animals to migrate to southern Africa. The remarkable interaction with nature which was still intact had inspired the shapes of the hieroglyphics and its phonograms as for the case of the African lions in the north of Egypt or for the Egyptian vulture in the south of Egypt. The Naqqada “Nakkada”6000-5000 B.C cultures are among cultures that left finds very much relating to the wild nature of ancient Egypt. Naqqada cultures were well located as it occupied middle Egypt where nature was rich in rock formations, hillocks and plains where the savannah could be found. So lions were common as well as vultures and there where man had to confront lions and fight it in order to survive. Soon the lion became to represent a phenomenal force that signed for power and once to be overcome by a man it would sign for the human courage so much later it became what inspired a ritual should be accomplished by the chief of a tribe or by any ruler in order to prove courage , valor and fertility. The ritual of The Heb-Sed was the most essential rite in ancient Egypt that kings had to face to be able to hold throne for thirty years at least, that rite was to include a face
to face physical fight with a lion then later it became replaced with a fight against a bull which could be due to the rareness of lions caused by dryness and droughts.
The very concealed aim for the Heb-Sed rite was to avoid the senility for the ruler as he by circumstances had to enjoy a lot of physical strength in order to lead his nation to a victory. Generally the African mythology can provide a lot of examples for the Egyptian Heb-Sed followed by many nations in Africa as in southern Sudan or in Kenya by the Masai tribe .
The Sphinx in ancient Memphis.
The most common tradition in Africa was to dethrone the senile king and crown his heir as most of old kings would not be able to kill a lion in direct fight, but in ancient Egypt kings had a different tactic to follow once they had to execute that rite, just were were keen to accomplish the rite while still been young so they would do it just after one decade of rule in order to keep their throne for another thirty years. The Heb-Sed was to include a throne renewal ceremony for the jubilee of the king as well as a rejuvenation rite. Man in Africa generally and in ancient Egypt specifically used the lion to sign for strength and protection and found in fighting it a great threat to defy, then ancient Egyptian were the first ever to depict their kings with lions statues and images as for the Sphinx of Giza which has a lion body and a man head. By Yasser Kamel to Museumegypt, All rights reserved. Copyrig ©Musegypt.
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