Extra Reading Diary: Ancient Egypt

For this reading diary, I wanted to concentrate on the story about the two brothers.  I loved the story – it’s intricate and it seems like it was just one thing after another for poor Bata. I wish there was more detail about exactly what kind of markings a sacred bull had.  So I did some research.

The markings of an Apis bull – a bull who represented Ptah – had a black body with a white triangle on his forehead, a white vulture wing outline on his back, a scarab mark under his tongue, a white crescent moon on his right flank, and double the amount of hairs on his tail.

I thought that something with this high of a level of importance to Egyptians would mean that there would be more artwork featuring these types of markings.  But there are only two – one shows the white triangle and the other shows the vulture wing outline.

Adorning the Apis bull for the ceremony by Jean Baptiste Coene [x]

 

Procession of the Apis Bull by Frederick Bridgman [x]

Considering the amount of time people put into reviving nearly extinct horse breeds (the Przewalski’s horse, for example) or even all of the attempts to bring back the Woolly mammoth and Pyrenean ibex, I’m surprised someone hasn’t tried to re-create these markings so that they resemble one breed.  Then again, that would cheapen the significance of the markings – which served as a sign of Ptah’s presence.