The "Scene of the Pelicans" in the Room of the Seasons: an Early Attestation of Animal Worship (?)

Traditionally, animal worship is not associated with the reconstructed religious panorama of Old Kingdom Egypt; on the other hand, the decorative cycle from the Room of the Seasons in the solar temple of Niuserra at Abu Ghurob provides – with its impressive set of royal reliefs – a rare insight into the contemporary domain of official ideology and cult, one that is visually articulated and thematically centred on what Jan Assmann (2001, p. 56) has aptly described as its «fundamental semantic framework: the sun god». The paper will argue that these two apparently unrelated contexts of religious action (animal worship and Old Kingdom solar cult) can actually be connected, focusing discussion on a particular scene – the so-called «Scene of the Pelicans» (Pelikanszene) – whose curious representation and enigmatic inscription have aroused some interest. The careful examination of such a unique relief will allow highlighting three major points: (1) through contextual arguments and a specific heuristic pattern, a cultural-religious setting for the ritual episode displayed will be suggested; (2) the latter will serve as an exemplary case study for reassessing the methodological premises, conceptual schemes, and narrative strategies related with the interpretation of the whole animal worship issue; (3) all this will led to the conclusion that animal cult(s) must be reconceptualised as an articulated field of religious practice with a wider chronological range of expressions than usually admitted.