Ancient Egyptian corkscrew-horned sheep

{{Short description|A type of sheep in ancient southern Egypt and Nubia}}

File:Amun stela Berlin.jpg as a man, as a goose, and as the sheep variety "Ovis longipes palaeoaegyptiacus"]]

The ancient Egyptian corkscrew-horned sheep (Ovis longipes palaeoaegyptiacus){{cite journal |last1=Da Silva |first1=Anne |last2=Ahbara |first2=Abulgasim |last3=Baazaoui |first3=Imen |last4=Jemaa |first4=Slim Ben |last5=Cao |first5=Yinhong |last6=Ciani |first6=Elena |last7=Dzomba |first7=Edgar Farai |last8=Evans |first8=Linda |last9=Gootwine |first9=Elisha |last10=Hanotte |first10=Olivier |last11=Harris |first11=Laura |last12=Li |first12=Meng‐Hua |last13=Mastrangelo |first13=Salvatore |last14=Missohou |first14=Ayao |last15=Molotsi |first15=Annelin |last16=Muchadeyi |first16=Farai C. |last17=Mwacharo |first17=Joram M. |last18=Tallet |first18=Gaëlle |last19=Vernus |first19=Pascal |last20=Hall |first20=Stephen J. G. |last21=Lenstra |first21=Johannes A. |title=History and genetic diversity of African sheep: Contrasting phenotypic and genomic diversity |journal=Animal Genetics |date=19 November 2024 |doi=10.1111/age.13488 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/385944131_History_and_genetic_diversity_of_African_sheep_Contrasting_phenotypic_and_genomic_diversity |access-date=25 November 2024|doi-access=free |pmc=11666867 }} is a type of the extinct wild barbary sheep found in the ancient southern Egypt and Nubia. The ovacaprines were domesticated and often depicted on the stone tomb murals of the pharaohs for religious or aesthetic purposes. Ovis longipes palaeoaegyptiacus was one of the two most commonly domesticated sheep utilized on the reliefs of early pharaonic tombs, mostly because of its unique loosely spiraling horns which came out of the sides of the skull. A similar form of the sheep called Ovis platyura aegyptiaca had horns that developed downward and curled forward.{{cite book|title=Ancient Egyptian materials and technology|author= Paul T. Nicholson, Ian Shaw|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2000|pages=269|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vj7A9jJrZP0C&q=Ovis+longipes+palaeoaegyptiacus&pg=PA269|isbn= 9780521452571}}

Later on, these two variants of sheep came to presume important religious significance as well as domestic use. Herodotus recounts that early Egyptians did not wear wool, but some scholars argue that it was meant only for the priests and that there is archaeological evidence, including the body of a man wrapped in wool dating to the First Dynasty in a burial at al-Helwan, that delineates this point. The use of this sheep is also unique in Egyptian depiction of their early deities. In fact, "the standard representation of Egyptian gods, were first developed, and naturally the ram-headed deities wore the horns of the then prevailing Ovis longipes palaeoaegyptiacus and retained them even long after the sheep itself had died out."{{cite web|title=Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts|author=Boston Museum of Fine Arts|date=December 1953 |number=286 |volume=LI |accessdate=February 14, 2011|url=http://www.gizapyramids.org/pdf%20library/bmfa_pdfs/bmfa51_1953_80to84.pdf}} The sheep disappeared from records by the end of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt (1782 BC).

The gods Banebdjedet of Lower Egypt and Khnum of Upper Egypt were both depicted with the head(s) of a corkscrew-horned sheep.{{Cite journal |last=Ali |first=Mona Ezz |date=2020 |title=God Heryshef |url=https://journals.ekb.eg/article_94946_8d4c80161800403237fbbcd71888b68f.pdf |journal=Journal of Association of Arab Universities for Tourism and Hospitality |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=27}}