Bos aegyptiacus
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| Egyptian Cattle |
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Conservation status: Extinct (New Kingdom)
Urbain, 1937 </table> 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, Bos aegyptiacus did not have a hump. Bos aegyptiacus had either large widespread horns, which arched first inward and then outward or shorter horns which had the same structure. According to Egyptian art Bos aegyptiacus was coloured either black, brown, brown and white, white spotted, black and white, or white. It is uncertain as to where Bos 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 Auroch. 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. Regardless, Bos 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). Bos aegyptiacus was used for food, milk, leather, and sacrifice. Bos aegyptiacus came to be considered so important that many Egyptian gods were considered to have the form of Bos aegyptiacus, notable deities being Hathor, Ptah (as the Apis Bull), and Ra-Atum (as the Mnevis Bull). Many Bos aegyptiacus were mummified. During the New Kingdom the Zebu, a hump-backed cattle from Syria was introduced to Egypt and the Bos aegyptiacus seems to have slowly been replaced by this new cattle.
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