APPENDIX 3

THE NABOUS (Ch. III, n. 39)

A nabus is mentioned as an Aethiopian animal by Pliny NH VIII 27, 69. This is simply a Latin transcription of a word which is otherwise known only from the label in the Nile Mosaic. Pliny states that it is the Aethiopian name for the giraffe, which the Greeks called the kamelopardalis, spotted camel, because of its resemblance to the Arabian camel, the dromedary1. Consequent­ ly, Keller identified the animal represented in the Nile Mosaic which has a yellow-brownish skin, as a giraffe with a plain skin. Young giraffes may occasionally be plain-skinned2. However, not far from the nabous in section 5 two fine giraffes are correctly depicted with high shoulders and long straight necks and clearly designated by the inscription kamelopardalis. They look very diffe­ rent from the nabous (fig. 11). Schmidt thought that the nabous in the Nile Mosaic represented a zebu, and Steinmayer identifies it with a Cape eland. The latter animal, however, has a short neck and heavy horns. Phillips is reminded of an animal resembling a giraffe but leaves the matter open3. Examination of the nabous in the Nile Mosaic reveals that the long neck is not straight but curved, and we only have to move the hump above its shoulders further back to obtain a fine specimen of a dromedary, the Ara­ bian camel. It is regrettable that the animal's characteristic feet are not visible. The dromedary and the giraffe were believed to be related and consequently could be confused4 . The misplacing of the dromedary's hump above the shoulder, apparently by con­ fusion with the giraffe, may be found in some other pictures of the animal5. There also exist pictures of dromedaries, and even of

1 For the inscription see /G XIV, 1302 g. For the nabus see Phillips 97, 133 ff.; Keller I, 284. 2 Keller in RE VII,l (1910) 1367, s.v. Giraffe. Cf. an example among the tribute being brought by Nubians to Egypt in a depiction in the tomb of Huy at Thebes, L 'image du noir, pl. 24; Michalowski, fig. ll4. 3 Schmidt 73; Steinmayer 67 f., fig. 31; cf. Haltenorth, Diller n. 57, pl. 10, 6-7; Phillips 152. 4 See Miclsch 1986, 748 ff., 759 ff.; idem 1989, 462; cf. e.g. Heliodorus X 27. 5 See Crawford, pl. LXVIII, 15: control mark on Roman coin of 64 B.C.; 120 APPENDIX 3 a real double-humped camel, with spotted skins6. The general confusion between the dromedary and the giraffe may explain why in the Nile Mosaic the Aethiopian name for the giraffe has been attached to the dromedary. The giraffe has been discussed in connection with section 57 • Although the existence of the dromedary in Egypt is sometimes attested for earlier periods, it seems to have been introduced more generally only in the Ptole­ maic period. Six pairs of camels (presumably dromedaries) took part in the Procession of Ptolemy ns. The appearance of a drome­ dary among the Aethiopian animals in the upper part of the Nile Mosaic suggests that it was believed to live there. This belief may have been due to various reasons: the fact that the dromedary was confused with the giraffe; the fact that it was introduced to Egypt together with Aethiopian animals; the fact that it was used for transport between Alexandria and the Red Sea ports, along which way Aethiopian and Indian products were imported; finally, the possibility that the dromedary had been imported into Aethiopia even before the Ptolemaic period, brought directly from Arabia over the Red Sea9. A dromedary appears in the Isiac procession on a plaster mould for a drinking cup from Egypt (see fig. 87) 10. Representations of dromedaries occur on Roman coins and in the vaguely Egyptianising landscape, referred to as the Yellow Frieze, in the Casa di Livia in Rome11. A camel fight was put on in the and Kadar, pl. 178,2: an illustration in the Venice Oppian; in the latter case the text refers to a hybrid between a camel and a leopard, so a giraffe, but the artist actually depicted dromedaries, see Oppian Cynegetica III, 461 ff., Kadar 105. 6 See Mielsch 1986, fig, 1: mosaic from Rimini, and figs. 15, 16: mosaics from Israel; Carandini fo. XXIX: Piazza Armerina mosaic. 7 See Ch. III, nn. 42, 44, 45. 8 For tJ:le dromedary in general see REX, 2, 1824 ff., s.v. Kamel; Keller I, 275; LA III, 304 f., s.v. Kamel; Boessneck 83; Toynbee 137 ff.; K. Schauenburg, Die Cameliden im Altertum, B]b 155/156 (1955/1956) 59 ff.; idem, Neue antike Cameliden, Bjb 162 (1962) 98ff. For the dromedary in Egypt see Rice 92 ff.; Scholz 121, n. 278; M. Ripinsky, The Camel in Dynastic E~t,)EA 71 (1985) 134 ff. For the confusion with the dromedary see above nn. 4, 6; for the Procession see Ch. III, n. 43, IV, n. 46; for the dromedary as a means of transport in the Red Sea trade route, see Ch. III, n. 33, Rice 93; for the import of the dromedary into Aethiopia see Epstein 565; Scholz 121, 127, nn. 278, 304). 10 See Ch. IV, n. 123. 11 For the coins see Crawford pl. LXVIII, 15, control mark on a coin of 64; Crawford, no. 422, pl. LI, no. 431,1; pl. LII; RM 93 (1986) 272, pl. 127,