Egypt:
The history of zoos is a long story
with the first known records, of exotic animals being kept in
captivity, dating back to 2500BC. These records were of pictures and
hieroglyphs, found at Saqqara cemetery near Memphis, which depicted
the Egyptians keeping many species of antelopes, baboons, hyenas,
cheetahs, cranes, storks and falcons in captivity (Lauer, 1976).
Other records also show that Tutmosis III kept wild animals in the
gardens of the Karnak temple (Strouhal, 1992). From 1298 – 1235 BC
the Pharaoh Rameses II kept giraffes and a pet lion which was also
recorded accompanying him into battle (Kisling, 2001). It was also
during this time, in the 2nd millennium BCE, that a
menagerie existed in Hierakonpolis and was likey owned by the local
ruler of the time (National Geographic 2009).
Mesopotamia:
At the same time as the Egyptians,
Royalty of Mesopotamia started to keep wild animals with carvings of
monkeys, elephants and antelopes being found on the walls of Assyrian
royal palaces. It has also being found that the earliest recordings
of animals being kept were that of lions being kept by the royalty
more than 2000 years BC (Kisling, 2001).
In modern times, one of the more
recent exhibits that we use in zoos today is the ecosystem exhibit
which is where you don't just see the animals, but also see the
environment in which they would live in, in the wild. These are very
important enclosures, not just for the public to see how the animals
live in the wild, but also for the animal as it allows it to show its
natural behaviours thus reducing its stress levels and sometimes
provides it with vital environmental factors needed for it to
survive. The earliest know versions of these ecosystem exhibits is
thought to date back to ancient Mesopotamia. Some records show that
Sennacherib, king of Assyria from 704 – 682 BC (Who is thought to
have been the creator of, the ancient wonder, the Hanging Gardens of
Babylon) created artificial wetland environments in order to exhibit
marsh plants and animals (Dalley, 1993).
China:
From c. 1000 – 2000 BC during the
Zhou dynasty in china walled in parks were created to house many
different animals. Later during the Han dynasty, from c. 200 BC, many
private menageries were created to house birds, bears, tigers,
alligators, rhinoceroses, deer and elephants (Schafer, 1968).
Greece:
In ancient Greece animals played a
huge part in the lives of people as many were depicted in tales of
gods from the Hydra to to Pegasus. To many they were revered
creatures and to others they were to be sacrificed as offerings to
the gods (Lloyd, 2013). In either case this meant that the ancient
Greeks had many private menageries for study and even for show
(Hosey, Melfi and Pankhurst, 2011).
The ancient Greeks were also very well know for there advancements
in science and mathematics, one such person was Aristotle (384 –
322 BC). Aristotle was one of the greatest minds to have existed and
helped to start many fields of science including zoology (Wikipedia,
2015) as he owned his own private menagerie where he wrote the
earliest known zoological encyclopedia, The History of Animals
(Hosey, Melfi and Pankhurst, 2011).
Overview:
From
what we have looked over in these ancient collections of animals we
can see that none of the ancient collections really came close to
what we would call a zoo. This is because, excluding ancient Greece,
many of the collections were private and were used to intimidate
visitors by showing them that the owner was “powerful” enough to
tame these wild animals. They also showed power because many of the
animals were offerings to show that the subjects providing them were
loyal. However, without these early collections of animals the modern
zoo may not have existed or may only have been in these early stages
and with it our knowledge of animals would be more limited.
References:
Dallay, S., 1993. Ancient Mesopotamian
Gardens and the Identification of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Resolved. Garden History, 21,
pp. 1 – 13.
Hosey, G., Melfi, V., and Pankhurst,
S., 2011. Zoo Animals Behaviour, Management, and Welfare. 4th
ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kisling, V.N., 2001. Zoo and
Aquarium History: Ancient Animal Collections to Zoological Gardens.
New York, NY/London: CRC Press.
Lauer, J., 1976. Saqqara: The Royal
Cemetery of Memphis, Excavations and Discoveries since 1850.
London: Thames & Hudson.
Lloyd,
G.E R., 2013. The Greek Menagerie. The Sciences,
22(1), pp. 11 – 14.
National
Geographic, 2009. EGYPT PICTURES: Ancient Animal Graves
from Private Zoo? [Online]
Available At:
<http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/09/photogalleries/animal-tombs-ancient-egypt-missions/index.html>
[Accessed: 14/02/2015]
Schafer,
E.H., 1968. Hunting Parks and Animal Enclosures in Ancient China.
Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient,
11, pp. 318 – 343.
Strouhal,
E., 1992. Life in Ancient Eygpt,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wikipedia,
2015. Aristotle.
[Online] Available At: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle>
[Accessed: 14/02/2015]
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