Although archaeologists have been very interested in representatives of the local waterfowl since the fresco was discovered at the site of the Meidum site in Lower Egypt in 1871, it was later turned on. an evolutionary biologist’s classification to see what the bird really looks like.
Researcher Anthony Romilio from the University of Queensland in Australia took a closer look at six representative birds in a famous work called Meidum Geese, a 4,600-year-old painting historian described as one of the masterpieces. Great work on Egyptian animals.
Despite centuries of scrutiny, the fact it retains a place in history as the oldest record of birds with enough detail to identify a species, but the exact identity of most of those species have never been agreed upon.
In particular, some species in the picture could not be found in any books about birds today.
The described mammals include representatives of dogs, cattle, leopards and a white antelope known as the addax, all beautifully detailed preserved inside the burial chambers of Fourth Dynasty prince Nefermaat I and his wife, Itet.
While much of the artwork was plundered decades after its discovery, the goose-shaped fresco was moved by Italian Egyptologist Luigi Vassalli to ensure its conservation.
Until now, in the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities in Cairo, the ancient geese remained the subject of heated debate.
Most agree that two of the three left-facing birds in the picture are the larger white goose (Anser albifrons), a medium-sized goose still widely found throughout the Northern Hemisphere.
But the identity of the picture’s first and last bird is somewhat doubtful, zoologists cannot decide whether it is the gray goose (A. anser) - the ancestor of most domestic geese - or geese. beans (Anser fabalis).
Then two slightly smaller red and gray birds are facing to the right. They resemble the red-breasted goose (Branta ruficollis), a rare species found throughout Western Europe.
No relic of this species has been discovered in any of the excavation sites of ancient Egypt. However, Romilio used a more objective way to compare 13 visible traits per animal on a different scale known as the "Tobias criterion".
"This is a highly effective method in identifying species using quantitative measurements of the main characteristics of birds and significantly reinforces the value of information to the science of kinetics," Romilio said. physics and ecology ".
According to Romilio, the pair of birds in the picture is too different from the red-breasted geese. As for which species of birds the pictures can represent, their enlarged flanks of feathers special enough to make them stand out are relatively unique, suggesting more likely we can no longer see copper. kind of them too.
"From a zoological point of view, Egyptian artwork is the only documentary about this specially patterned goose, which now appears globally extinct," said Romilio. for this particular goose is another mystery that needs to be solved. "
Searching for clues about surviving and extinct animals in ancient art, including cave paintings tens of thousands of years old, is one way biologists can keep track of these changes in wildlife distribution and range, or letting ecologists track changes in climate.
