PLEASANT HOURS AT HOME AND ABROAD
Evidences of
a northern site
for the hunt-
ing grounds
The general
disposition of
the hunting
scene
appearance of a pair of deer, the stag carrying palmate horns.1 Deer
are shown over a dozen times in Egyptian monuments at dates varying
from prehistoric ages to this, perhaps the last, instance; but never, save
here, with horns clearly palmate.2 This peculiarity marks out our animals
as fallow-deer (Dama dama) from Palestine; and, as there is every reason
to believe that they were rare visitors or settlers in Egypt, it is to be sup-
posed that they were more likely to be found in the mountains nearest
to Syria.
In other respects the picture shows little originality and few features
of interest. The practice of dividing the field into parallel tiers makes
an artistic presentation difficult. Yet no one will deny life and move-
ment to this scene. Had color and form come down to us unimpaired,
instead of in a state of lamentable injury, it would have won deserved
praise long since. The chisel left many features to be made clear by
the brush; these outlines being lost, the eye is unable to disentangle the
struggling animals and cannot but misjudge the whole.
On the left (Plate VIII, i), Puyemre advances swiftly with half-
strained bow towards a netted stockade, within which is a melee of game.3
In the right hand, which holds the arrow to the string, he also carries, by
'Palmate horns may be indicated also in El Bersheh, I, PI. VII. I take it that it is by error that
horns are given to the doe, though suckling a fawn.
2 To the pictures of deer enumerated by Hilzheimer in his discussion of the question of species in
Borchardt, Sahure, II, pp. 169-172, add Petrie, Medum, PI. XXVII; Newberry, El Bersheh, I, PI. VII; II, Pis.
XV, XVI; Blackman, Meir, II, PI. VIII; Steindorff, Grab des Ti, PI. CXXVIII; Davies, Tomb of Antefoker,
Frontispiece; also the improved references, Davies, Five Theban Tombs, Pis. I, XII, and Newberry, Beni
Hasan, II, PI. IV. There are thus eight occurrences previous to the Middle Kingdom, five under it, and two
soon after it, showing the growing rarity of the animal. It probably rarely, if ever, passed the river, the
hunters of Memphis having crossed to the east bank north of Cairo to seek it, and those of Beni Hasan, El
Bersheh, and Meir having met with it in the comparatively fertile wadys running back into the Arabian
mountains in that district. Antefoker had a residence at Lisht, so that his hunting experiences might well
be in the north, and perhaps Ment-hir-khopshef had met with the Berber stag in the western oases when
Count of Thinis. The drawings of the horns on the monuments vary somewhat; and, as the non-appearance
of the palmate form points to a closer relation to the Persian Dama Mesopotamia than to the Syrian fallow-
deer, Hilzheimer concludes that the former type had a much wider extension to the west in prehistoric
times, and that its survivals form the originals of Egyptian scenes in most cases. The fanciful Coptic animal
in Sheikh Said, PI. XIV, seems based on memories of the spotted fallow-deer, though its horn is not. "One
stag" is among the importations of animals from Syria in Thothmes' thirty-eighth year, but the deter-
minative seems to be the head of a hornless doe (Sethe, Urkunden, IV, p. 718).
3 As this stockade is almost invariably shown, we must accept it as a regular part of the arrangements.
To be of use it must, however, be over man's height, and this measure is given to it in Newberry, El Bersheh,
46
Evidences of
a northern site
for the hunt-
ing grounds
The general
disposition of
the hunting
scene
appearance of a pair of deer, the stag carrying palmate horns.1 Deer
are shown over a dozen times in Egyptian monuments at dates varying
from prehistoric ages to this, perhaps the last, instance; but never, save
here, with horns clearly palmate.2 This peculiarity marks out our animals
as fallow-deer (Dama dama) from Palestine; and, as there is every reason
to believe that they were rare visitors or settlers in Egypt, it is to be sup-
posed that they were more likely to be found in the mountains nearest
to Syria.
In other respects the picture shows little originality and few features
of interest. The practice of dividing the field into parallel tiers makes
an artistic presentation difficult. Yet no one will deny life and move-
ment to this scene. Had color and form come down to us unimpaired,
instead of in a state of lamentable injury, it would have won deserved
praise long since. The chisel left many features to be made clear by
the brush; these outlines being lost, the eye is unable to disentangle the
struggling animals and cannot but misjudge the whole.
On the left (Plate VIII, i), Puyemre advances swiftly with half-
strained bow towards a netted stockade, within which is a melee of game.3
In the right hand, which holds the arrow to the string, he also carries, by
'Palmate horns may be indicated also in El Bersheh, I, PI. VII. I take it that it is by error that
horns are given to the doe, though suckling a fawn.
2 To the pictures of deer enumerated by Hilzheimer in his discussion of the question of species in
Borchardt, Sahure, II, pp. 169-172, add Petrie, Medum, PI. XXVII; Newberry, El Bersheh, I, PI. VII; II, Pis.
XV, XVI; Blackman, Meir, II, PI. VIII; Steindorff, Grab des Ti, PI. CXXVIII; Davies, Tomb of Antefoker,
Frontispiece; also the improved references, Davies, Five Theban Tombs, Pis. I, XII, and Newberry, Beni
Hasan, II, PI. IV. There are thus eight occurrences previous to the Middle Kingdom, five under it, and two
soon after it, showing the growing rarity of the animal. It probably rarely, if ever, passed the river, the
hunters of Memphis having crossed to the east bank north of Cairo to seek it, and those of Beni Hasan, El
Bersheh, and Meir having met with it in the comparatively fertile wadys running back into the Arabian
mountains in that district. Antefoker had a residence at Lisht, so that his hunting experiences might well
be in the north, and perhaps Ment-hir-khopshef had met with the Berber stag in the western oases when
Count of Thinis. The drawings of the horns on the monuments vary somewhat; and, as the non-appearance
of the palmate form points to a closer relation to the Persian Dama Mesopotamia than to the Syrian fallow-
deer, Hilzheimer concludes that the former type had a much wider extension to the west in prehistoric
times, and that its survivals form the originals of Egyptian scenes in most cases. The fanciful Coptic animal
in Sheikh Said, PI. XIV, seems based on memories of the spotted fallow-deer, though its horn is not. "One
stag" is among the importations of animals from Syria in Thothmes' thirty-eighth year, but the deter-
minative seems to be the head of a hornless doe (Sethe, Urkunden, IV, p. 718).
3 As this stockade is almost invariably shown, we must accept it as a regular part of the arrangements.
To be of use it must, however, be over man's height, and this measure is given to it in Newberry, El Bersheh,
46