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Some Gold Bird Ornaments Falcon or Wryneck?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Olga Tufnell
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Extract

An enquiry which seemed simple enough at the outset, has developed alarmingly in the course of investigation and now covers a wide field which can only be briefly indicated in this note. It concerns seven ornaments in all, two of which have long been in the possession of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden; the other five were excavated by Sir Flinders Petrie and his staff for the British School of Egyptian Archaeology at Tell el-Ajjul, south of Gaza, between 1930–52, and are now dispersed in various museums (see Fig. 1 and Plates XXI–XXII).

From the time of discovery onwards, the bird represented on the Ajjul ornaments was described as a falcon, and there seemed no reason to question it. But many years later, Miss Sylvia Benton suggested to me – on seeing the Ajjul gold ornaments – that the craftsman intended to represent a wryneck jynx torquilla. It is only recently that I have had the opportunity to explore the possibility further. This paper is the result of that enquiry. Furthermore, I would like to suggest that the bird portrayed on Tutankhamen's earrings is the same bird as on the examples found at Tell el-Ajjul, whatever that may prove to be. The authors of the catalogues accompanying the exhibition of these treasures on view in Paris (1967) and in London (1972) did not commit themselves as to the identity of the bird.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 33 , December 1983 , pp. 57 - 66
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1983

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References

1 Toutankhamon et son temps, Petit Palais, Paris (1967), p. 86Google Scholar.

2 Treasures of Tutankhamun, British Museum, London (1972)Google Scholar, Item 39. See drawing, Fig. 1. 3

3 Morris, F. O., History of British Birds, 1888 edn. in 8 vols. Vol. I, pp. 62–6Google Scholar. For a more recent description, see Heinzel, H., The Birds of Britain and Europe with North Africa and the Middle East, Philadelphia and New York (1972), Gyrfalcon on p. 91Google Scholar. Mrs. Maxwell-Hyslop suggested that a possible identification of the bird on the jewellery might be falco biarmicus, (Western Asiatic Jewellery, London (1971), p. 118Google Scholar and colour plate E), but this member of the family, like all others in the group has a strongly hooked beak.

4 Morris, , History, Vol. II, pp. 65–8Google Scholar. See drawing, Fig. 1.

5 Aristotle, , Historia Animalium, II, 504 A 11Google Scholar.

6 Petrie, F., Mackay, E. J. H. and Murray, M. A., City of Shepherd Kings and Ancient Gaza V, BSAE LXIV, London (1952)Google Scholar, pl. XXXIV.

7 Petrie, F., Ancient Gaza II, BSAE LIV, London (1932)Google Scholar, pls. III: 13; LII, Grave 1165. For scarabs, see pl. VII: 75–80. There is a similar pin from the same hoard 277, which contained the bird earrings, see AG V, pl. VI right and colour plate A.

8 Pritchard, J. B. (ed.), Ancient Near Eastern Texts, Princeton (1950), pp. 232 fGoogle Scholar.

9 Kempinski, A., “Tel el-'Ajjul – Beth Aglayim or Sharuhen?” in Israel Exploration Journal 24 (1974), pp. 145–52Google Scholar; see also Matthiae, P., Studi Eblaiti IV, Rome (1981), p. 211Google Scholar n. 24.

10 AG V, pp. 8–10.

11 See inventory, nos. 2–5.

12 AG IV, pl. LXII, Area EAA, Hoard 1299, pls. XIII–XIV: 28–31.

13 Pindar, , Pythian Odes, 4 214Google Scholar; cf. Anthologia Palatina = Anthologia Graeca 5, 204.

14 Gow, A. S. F., in JHS 54 (1934), 1–13CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 11 figs.

15 Cook, A. B., Zeus (3 vols), Cambridge (1914–1940), I, pp. 197Google Scholar f. and 253 f.

16 Pollard, J., Birds in Greek Life and Myth, London (1977), p. 131Google Scholar.

17 Paean, XI 9.

18 Philostratus, 10. 6. 11 or Loeb edn. II. 53.

19 Theocritus, , Idyll, II 17Google Scholar.

20 Anthology Palatina – Alexandrian Epigram 5. 204.

21 The same epigram shows that wryneck wheels varied in material and workmanship, and that gold figured in their decoration in that and other instances.

22 Thompson, D'A. W., A Glossary of Greek Birds, O.U.P. (1936), new edn. pp. 124–8Google Scholar.

23 C. M. Doughty, Arabia Deserta, ch. 15.

24 Genesis XXIV.

25 Other references to the use of the wryneck as a charm can be found under iynx in Liddell, F. and Scott, R. in A Greek-English Lexicon, Rev. Stuart-Jones, N. and Mackenzie, R. with supplement, O.U.P. (1968)Google Scholar, extendin g in time from the fifth century B.C. to the third century A.D.