Predators shepherding their prey
About the work
Imported from the workbook's Full reassessment sheet, revised 7 October 2026 (record ID 8). The assessment below is the workbook's comparative judgment under its stated criteria; source links and limits are retained.
Workbook assessment: Plausible
Date or witness: Approximately 1250–1150 BCE
Region: Egypt
Workbook date-sort bounds: 1250 BCE to 1150 BCE; these bounds are not automatically invention or disappearance dates.
Description
British Museum EA10016-1 depicts geese and goats being shepherded by a cat, fox and hyena, upright like people.
Evidence of adoption or transmission
Predators tending prey belongs to the broader animal inversion imagery also found on ostraca.
What remains uncertain
This particular scene is on papyrus; broad group evidence should not be misrepresented as multiple independent copies of every panel.
Candidate-index family 8: Animal role reversals in Egyptian artisans’ visual culture
The workbook groups records 6–11 here and rates the family Plausible. This is a research shortlist, not proof of an independently established meme family.
Dated evidence: c.1292–1077 BCE; individual witnesses have narrower dates
Region: Deir el-Medina / Thebes, Egypt
Shortlist uncertainty: One related visual family. Artisans’ settlement context is documented; use, meaning and independent circulation remain partly inferred.
Workbook revision note: Reassessed using grassroots criteria