Palaeozoologist Darren Naish does one of his terrific Cryptozoology posts on the small, hairy, elephanty thingy in the tomb-painting above. Was it a pygmy mammoth from Wrangel Island, one of late surviving-dwarf species from around the Mediterranean, or just bad drawing?
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Did The Egyptians Trade In Pygmy Mammoths
Palaeozoologist Darren Naish does one of his terrific Cryptozoology posts on the small, hairy, elephanty thingy in the tomb-painting above. Was it a pygmy mammoth from Wrangel Island, one of late surviving-dwarf species from around the Mediterranean, or just bad drawing?
Early paintings did not always depict things proportionally. Instead size was often used to indicate the importance of things. The king, for example, might be drawn large while his subjects or enemies drawn small.
ReplyDeleteThus whatever was being drawn - elephant or mammoth - might not be a baby.