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Since its discovery in the 1800s the
Meidum Geese has been described as “Egypt’s Mona Lisa ,” said Dr. Romilio. According to the new study, Nefermaat was the eldest son of pharaoh Sneferu of Egypt s Fourth Dynasty: “a vizier, royal seal bearer and a prophet of Bastet, feline-headed goddess of protection.” The now extinct species of goose depicted in his tomb had “red, black and white markings on its face, grey wings with white marks and a speckled red breast distinct from modern red-breasted geese.”
Supposedly extinct goose species as depicted in ancient Egyptian painting, including the so-called Meidum Geese, at the tomb of Nefermaat and Itet. (
Meidum Geese, Chapel of Itet, Meidum, Egypt. Photo C.K. Wilkinson.
It may not be a golden goose, but a feathered friend depicted in an ancient Egyptian painting is still delighting scientists the world over.
Anthony Romilio, a researcher in the Dinosaur Lab at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, believes that the speckled goose in a 4,600-year-old painting often referred to as “Egypt’s Mona Lisa” is, in fact, the only known documentation of an ancient and now-extinct species.
Called
Meidum Geese, the painting was discovered in the 1800s in the Chapel of Itet at Meidum. Itet was the wife of the vizier Nefermaat, who ruled Egypt from 2610 to 2590 B.C. The powerful couple was able to commission works from the most sought-after artists of the day, according to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. (A facsimile of
Gorgeous Egyptian Art From 4,600 Years Ago Reveals an Extinct Goose
24 FEBRUARY 2021
Artwork that had adorned the walls of an Egyptian prince s tomb for more than four millennia has been found to contain images of a bird completely unknown to modern science - until now.
Although archaeologists have been eyeing the representations of local waterfowl since the fresco s discovery at the dig site of Meidum in 1871, it s taken an evolutionary biologist s clever taxonomic sleuthing to see the birds for what they really were.
Last year Anthony Romilio from the University of Queensland in Australia took a closer look at the six birds represented in a famous piece known as the Meidum Geese, a 4,600-year-old painting historians describe as one of the great masterpieces of the Egyptian animal genre .