By John Wyatt with illustrations by Jackie Garner. Published on Egyptological, In Brief, on July 1st 2011.
This series of notes on the birds of Ancient Egypt consists of edited extracts by John Wyatt from his own forthcoming book Birds in Ancient Egypt: An Identification Guide, which is scheduled for publication in August 2012. The co-author and illustrator for this book is Jackie Garner, FRSA. For further information or to comment on any of his ideas you can leave a comment below or contact John at waxtours {at} tiscali.co.uk
Rekhyt from the Red Temple of Hatshepsut at Karnak
The hieroglyphs of the rekhyt, Gardiner sign 
Black-headed Plover from Beni Hasan
This lack of a black breast, however, is a key identification feature of the only other North African crested lapwing, the brown backed Black-headed Plover, Vanellus tectus, which to date seems to have been over-looked but which is still to be found in the sub-Saharan Sahel Region from the Atlantic Coast right through Sudan and Ethiopia to the Red Sea.
The evidence that this species also existed in ancient Egypt can be found in the top hieroglyphic resister of the south wall of the 11the Dynasty tomb of Baqet III at Beni Hasan where a painted hieroglyph, in excellent condition, clearly shows a Black-headed plover. It therefore appears as if both the Northern Lapwing, Vanellus vanellus, and the Black-headed Plover, Vanellus tectus, were present in Egypt in Pharaonic times and that both were used to depict the rekhyt. Other bird hieroglyphs have been found to be represented by two or more actual scenes.
Biographies:
John Wyatt is a specialist in African birds and mammals having worked for 12 years in Northern Rhodesia/Zambia in Her Majesty’s Overseas Civil Service. From 1982-94 and from 1988-89 John was Deputy Director of Development at the British Trust for Ornithology. For the last six years he has combined his University training as an Anthropologist/Ethnographer with his skills as an Ornithologist and is at present the World’s only full-time Ornitho-Egyptologist.
Jackie Garner is a professional wildlife artist and illustrator based in Gloucestershire. She is currently illustrating Birds in Ancient Egypt: An Identification Guide. Jackie’s work is held in collections in Norway, South Africa, Trinidad and Australia, and has been shown on BBC television. For further information visit www.jackiegarner.co.uk.
By
Sandra Nibbi is much missed. She kindly gave me a copy of her book “Lapwings, etc” in Sept.1997. It generated some personal correspondence between us, & on 7 June 1999, I wrote of my opinion that Egypt’s lapwing had also had celestial meaning. The starry Rekhyt is a Winter Constellation (ablydemonstrated on the Roman Period ‘Dendara Zodiac’), & easy to track back to the “Scorpion” curvature macehead with the asterism in its rising stages!
Hi Pat
Here are some bibliographical references concerning lapwings and/or rekhyt
Baines J., Fecundity figures, Egyptian Personification and the Iconology of a Genre, Warminster, 1985, p. 48
Beaux Nathalie, Le cabinet de curiosité de Thoutmosis III, Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta, 1990, p. 254-5 (with several drawings of Vanellus Vannellus L.)
Griffin K., Links between doorways and the rekhyt in Ancient Egypt, Proceedings of the Tenth International Congress of Egyptologists, University of The Aegean, Rhodes, 22-29 may 2008 with an abstract of the papers by International Association of Egyptologists and full publication by Peeters Publishers, Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta (forthcoming 2011)
Houlihan P.F., The Birds of Ancient Egypt, Warminster 1986, p. 93-6
Nibbi A., Lapwings and Libyans in Ancient Egypt, Oxford, 1986
Vernus Pascal & Yoyotte Jean, Bestiaire des Pharaons, p. 416-8, 777 (with a detailed explanation of the origin, meaning and evolution of the word rekhyt)
thank you for this Etienne. I will track them down. I may have to come to you for French translation though!
Pat, by coincidence I have Lapwings and Libyans on order from Amazon, so if there is anything that you want me to check for you do let me know. It should be with me in the next couple of days. I also have Houlihan’s book which I can check for you if that would be of use.
Thank you for this Andie. I think I might try to access the book myself through the local library: since the original reply from Etienne I have been reading various papers on a variety of subjects by Alessandra Nibbi. I like her “delivery” and find her articles fascinating – even down to stone anchors at Marsa Mutrah. I don’t know about lapwings, but there are so many red herrings in egyptology, so many delicious avenues to go down!
It turned up today – 139 pages long, looking as though it was typed up on an old fashioned typewriter. Nibbi’s views met with a very mixed reception but I am looking forward to getting stuck in. If you have difficulty getting hold of it give me a yell.
Good question Pat. The Northern Lapwing has probably always been, primarily, a winter visitor to Northern Egypt.
It might, however, have bred in the past. Its autumn arrival then could possibly have been in flocks of many thousands which would have stayed together until leaving in the spring. Add numbers to a constant cacophony of sound and frequent panicky eruptions into flight and I can see why this species was likened to the “common people” or perhaps an invading horde. This behaviour is not unique to the Lapwing but possibly most noticeable in that species as every time they take off every other species present goes with them. Can we take this further to determine where the “rekhyt people” came from ? I don’t think so even though Lapwings would have poured in from the north from late July to September and returned in that direction from late February to April. John Wyatt
that is interesting. I am now going to track down Etienne’s references to see if I can take this any further, though I do like the link between an invading horde and a flock of lapwings. Thank you.
ever since I attended a Ken Griffin lecture on rekhyts my interest has been stimulated: “my rekhyt” (Hatshepsut). I think its fair to say it isn’t certain who the rekhyt people were – and your piece now makes me enquire why the lapwing in particular was chosen to represent them. Does the lapwing have any particular behavioural characteristics uncommon to other birds, I wonder, which might help to pin down who the rekhyt people were? Pat Kennedy