La hyène dans les assiettes : un particularisme égyptien ?

Social markers occur frequently in elite tombs in Ancient Egypt. One of the strangest to our eyes is found only in Old Kingdom tombs of the 4th to 6th dynasties: the representation of hyenas in processions of sacrificial animals and scenes of this animal being force-fed – scenes that evoke for us anything but a culinary delicacy, even though hyena does occasionally appear on the menu of dishes in some lists of offerings. Iconographically, the hyena occupies a prestigious position, similar to that of the lion, among the wild animals represented in aristocratic hunting scenes up to the middle of the 18th dynasty, and the animal also occurs on Ramesside figured ostraca. Later, in the Third Intermediate Period, it is only represented twice (one of these being on the menu for a god), only reappearing in Nilotic scenes in the Graeco-Roman Period. In marked contrast to iconography, the hyena hardly features in literature. The supposed ‘typhonic’ nature of the hyena is not based on any pharaonic source. Archaeozoological remains are rare, though some mummified hyenas are attested. Bones testifying to the consumption of this meat are known from the Predynastic Period, after which the only certain instance of slaughter and butchery dates to the New Kingdom and comes from a non-aristocratic social class. Thus, in the current state of research, archaeological and iconographic sources do not appear to dovetail exactly. Whatever the reason for this may be, the fact of the culinary consumption of the hyena in Ancient Egypt is firmly attested and claimed. Because of its rarity in other societies – even if this animal may sometimes have been domesticated or eaten – this Egyptian practice constitutes an undeniable cultural idiosyncrasy. The reaction of Egyptologists, who discount summarily the possibility of this supposedly horrid meat being actually consumed, is no less fascinating; it testifies to the limits of our understanding of the culture of the other, and to the sometimes insurmountable barriers to our comprehension, especially where culinary practices are concerned.