Domestic+Chicken

The Chicken in Ancient Egypt

Chickens were unknown until the very end of the New Kingdom, when they were imported from Mesopotamia by way of India. Possibly derived from the Red Jungle Fowl, in ancient Egypt the chicken was considered very unusual and was known as "the bird that gives birth and sings every day."

Thutmose III received four of the birds as tribute, and roosters, associated with the sun-god Ra because of their crowing at dawn, were sometimes kept as pets by pharaohs. Plutarch wrote that the Egyptians of his day sacrificed chickens to the god Anubis. By Roman times, the chicken had become the bird of choice for the table.

The Other Birds of Ancient Egypt