quote:How much can the written records of ancient civilizations tell us about the animals they lived alongside? Our latest research, based on the venomous snakes described in an ancient Egyptian papyrus, suggests more than you might think. A much more diverse range of snakes than we'd imagined lived in the land of the pharaohs which also explains why these Egyptian authors were so preoccupied with treating snakebites!
Like cave paintings, texts from early in recorded history often describe wild animals the writers knew. They can provide some remarkable details, but identifying the species involved can still be hard. For instance, the ancient Egyptian document called the Brooklyn Papyrus, dating back to around 660-330 B.C. but likely a copy of a much older document, lists different kinds of snake known at the time, the effects of their bites, and their treatment.
As well as the symptoms of the bite, the papyrus also describes the deity associated with the snake, or whose intervention might save the patient. The bite of the "great snake of Apophis" (a god who took the form of a snake), for example, was described as causing rapid death. Readers were also warned that this snake had not the usual two fangs but four, still a rare feature for a snake today.
The venomous snakes described in the Brooklyn Papyrus are diverse: 37 species are listed, of which the descriptions for 13 have been lost. Today, the area of ancient Egypt is home to far fewer species. This has led to much speculation among researchers as to which species are being described.
One revelation is that Apep, the giant serpent representing chaos in Egyptian religion, might have been based on the boomslang which now resides south of the Sahara Desert.
quote:For the great snake of Apophis, no reasonable contender currently lives within ancient Egypt's borders. Like most of the venomous snakes that cause the majority of the world's snakebite deaths, the vipers and cobras now found in Egypt have just two fangs, one in each upper jaw bone. In snakes, the jaw bones on the two sides are separated and move independently, unlike in mammals.
The nearest modern snake that often has four fangs is the boomslang (Disopholidus typus) from the sub-Saharan African savannas, now only found more than 400 miles (650 km) south of present-day Egypt. Its venom can make the victim bleed from every orifice and cause a lethal brain hemorrhage. Could the snake of Apophis be an early, detailed description of a boomslang? And if so, how did the ancient Egyptians encounter a snake that now lives so far south of their borders?
quote:Our study shows the much more humid climates of early ancient Egypt would have supported many snakes that don't live there today. We focused on 10 species from the African tropics, the Maghreb region of north Africa and the Middle East that might match the papyrus's descriptions. These include some of Africa's most notorious venomous snakes such as the black mamba, puff adder and boomslang.
We found that nine of our ten species could probably once have lived in ancient Egypt. Many could have occupied the southern and southeastern parts of the country as it then was modern northern Sudan and the Red Sea coast. Others might have lived in the fertile, vegetated Nile valley or along the northern coast. For instance, boomslangs might have lived along the Red Sea coast in places that 4,000 years ago would have been part of Egypt.
the lioness, Member # 17353
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Nehebkau
Shebitku Member # 23742
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quote:Originally posted by BrandonP:
One revelation is that Apep, the giant serpent representing chaos in Egyptian religion, might have been based on the boomslang which now resides south of the Sahara Desert.
quote:Teda and the related Daza are a branch of the Saharanic languages, spoken to this day in Southern Libya, Eastern Niger, and Northern Chad. Egypt's connection to these regions has become obvious through the discovery and systematic exploration of the Abu Ballas trail which leads from the oasis of Kharga in a straight line towards the Gebel Uweinat and Gilf Kebir. It is assumed that speakers of Proto-Saharan were present in this region since 7,000 BCE. In a 2010 article, I suggested that Egyptian imaginations of the first three hours of the underworld (the access to which was located in Egypt's far West) were informed by the ancient paleo-ecology of Northern Chad. I posited that two terms - the designation of the Egyptian chaos serpent Apophis/Apep (pp) and the name of the sweet water lake of the 2nd hour of the night (wrns) were borrowings from Teda/Daza.
- Thomas Schneider, Language Contact in Ancient Egypt, 2023
Djehuti Member # 6698
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Is it possible that the "four fanged" snake could be a viper with split fangs?
It's rare but not unusual for vipers to have deformed fangs which instead of the canines developing with a simple syringe like tube or groove, the grooving process splits each canine into two.
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