Gazelle

The Gazelle in Ancient Egypt


 * Egyptian Name:**

//Gesa, Gehez,// or //Hebe//


 * Hieroglyphics:[[image:3034876187_cd9680a158_-_Copy.jpg width="197" height="205" align="right" link="Timeline of Ancient Egypt"]]**

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The ancient Egyptians were familiar with four types of gazelles - the Dorcas Gazelle, the Soemmerring's Gazelle, the Gerenuk, and the Rhim Gazelle. Gazelle were hunted for sport by pharaohs and noblemen, and gazelle was a favorite meat offered to the dead. Gazelle skins were used as decorative covers for shields, chairs, and musical instruments, and to make special clothes for the wealthy. Gazelles, the Dorcas in particular, were also tamed and kept as pets. In tomb paintings, gazelles are shown relaxing under the chairs of their owners, or being led on leashes. The gentle gazelle was a favored pet of noble ladies, who liked to take them for walks.

Mummified pet gazelles have been found, buried with their owners to accompany them to the afterlife. These gazelles were carefully wrapped in linen and placed into their own coffins, sometimes shaped like the animal inside, and occasionally they had their own grave goods. A woman named Ankhshepnupet was buried with her pet gazelle curled up at her feet.

Gazelles were famed for their speed and nimble grace. A New Kingdom love poem places the following verses in the mouth of a maiden: "Oh, that you come to your beloved swiftly, like a bounding gazelle in the desert. Its feet reel, its limbs are weary, terror has entered its body. A hunter pursues it with his hounds but they do not see it in the dust." So the girl longs for her lover to run into her arms.

One of the earliest forms of amulet was that of a gazelle head, and gazelles often featured on cosmetic items. A common decorative motif, carved gazelles were often present at the stem and stern of elite Egyptian barques. There is some evidence to suggest that the animal is linked to bridal customs. Royal women below the rank of queen wore the Gazelle Crown.

Gazelles were said to greet the rising sun by "dancing" on their hind legs at dawn. The gazelle was associated with the goddess Anuket. Being sacred to Anuket, gazelles were ritually mummified - cemeteries containing great numbers have been discovered at Dendara and Kom Mer. The gazelle was also associated with the goddess Isis, and the animal was thought to be her especial pet. Gazelles were sometimes known as “Isis' Plaything.”

The Herbivores of Ancient Egypt