Hunting, an essential activity for the survival of early human communities, acquired unique symbolic significance in Egypt. Through it, pharaohs not only confronted nature but also projected a discourse of power and cosmic order. This article explores how the representation of hunting evolved to become a key ideological resource during the New Kingdom.
During the Predynastic Period (Naqada I-II-III), scenes depicting fishing and bird hunting were already being represented in rock paintings and artifacts such as ceramics and palettes. These representations highlight the importance of these activities for securing both meat sustenance and protection (Hamed, 2015).
Over time, hunting would no longer be just a necessary activity for survival. Thus, during the Historical Period, it became a social activity tasked with renewing social relationships among members of the elite and reminding the rest of their privileged status. Nonetheless, it must also be understood within the context of state emergence, where the figure of the pharaoh was perfected: an individual in the role of leader who always appeared victorious against dangerous animals (Incordino, 2015). Thus, scenes evolved to represent hunting much more complexly.
Private tombs included numerous hunting representations during the Old Kingdom and Middle Kingdom. These were considered to have two key functions in the funerary context: first, ensuring prosperity beyond death through resource acquisition; and second, reaffirming the social status of the deceased, evidenced both by the leisure time they could dedicate to this activity and by the economic means necessary to include such a representation in their tomb (Leprohon, 2015).
While this type of representation also occurred during the New Kingdom, the early Eighteenth Dynasty elite, like Userhet (TT56), left evidence of their participation in hunting using the light chariot, a technological innovation that symbolized power and prestige (Navaz Ayesa, 2024). Finally, during the Amarna Revolution and the Ramesside Period, there was a decline in these representations in favor of funerary, tribute, and professional ones (Sabbahy, 2018).
During the Late Bronze Age, pharaohs also elevated hunting to the status of royal pastime and recorded their exploits in various temples. Among these are: Deir el-Bahri, where Hatshepsut is depicted fishing and bird hunting from a canoe; the temple at Armant, which shows a rhinoceros immobilized; the Karnak Temple, with scenes of Thutmose III hunting hippos, and possibly Tutankhamun hunting with chariot and facing wild bulls; Abydos, where Seti I and his son capture a bull with a rope; and Medinet Habu, which includes multiple scenes of Ramses III hunting lions, bulls, wild donkeys, and desert animals.
These images, considered as iconographic loans from the elite tombs, were also used as ideological tools, for they not only publicly displayed the physical prowess of the monarchs but also functioned as an extension of the smiting scene and its apotropaic or protective function against evil. In this traditional and obligatory royal discourse representation, which can typically be found in temple pylons, the pharaoh appears holding a mace over their enemies while grasping them by the hair (Das Candeias Sales, 2017). Through this gesture, he maintained "at bay the impure and chaotic forces of the outside world (isfet) and proclaimed the power of the king and his role in maintaining cosmic order (maat)" (Robins, 1997, p. 131).
The relationship between hunting and religion is crucial to understanding its importance in the Egyptian context. Wild animals like hippos, donkeys, and lions were considered destabilizing forces or incarnations of chaos, linked to deities such as Seth. Therefore, their hunting was not only practical, protecting crops or livestock, but also had a political and religious function by reaffirming the power of the pharaoh and his divine role as restorer of order (Farid et al., 2018; Maydana, 2017). Paradoxically, despite lions representing considerable threats, their attributes were used to symbolize the Egyptian monarch, who was also seen as a formidable adversary in the Late Bronze Age international scene.
This symbolic association extended even to military iconography. In certain formal contexts, foreign enemies ("the others") were represented as animals that needed to be dominated and massacred when presented as a threat to Egyptian stability (Fleuren, 2019). The most representative example of this symbolic transfer is found in the Medinet Habu reliefs, where Ramses III appears hunting lions, wild bulls, and other desert animals, which symbolize the Sea Peoples, Levantines, and Libyans (Hamed, 2015).
In conclusion, representations of hunting in Ancient Egypt went beyond mere documentation of an activity. They were a powerful means of ideological expression, reflecting the pharaoh's relationship with cosmic order, his dominion over nature, and his role as leader. Both in tombs and temples, these scenes consolidated the authority of the pharaoh and elite, showing an interconnection between the earthly and divine realms.
Bibliography
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