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Tesem
Tesem
= tsm) was the Ancient Egyptian name for “hunting dog”. In popular literature it denotes the prick-eared, leggy dog with a curled tail from the early Egyptian age, but it was also used with reference to the lop-eared “saluki/sloughi” type; it was one of several types of dogs in Ancient Egypt, particularly the latter type had an appearance most similar to that of a greyhound.
One of the earliest known recordings of these dogs is the “Khufu dog” from the tomb of King Khufu, who reigned between 2609–2584 BC. This dog was named Akbaru, and was depicted wearing a collar. They continued to appear during the Middle Kingdom period (2055 BC and 1650 BC), but by the time of the New Kingdom (1550 BC – 1069 BC), they were replaced by dogs with hanging ears and a straight tail. These dogs were of the saluki/sloughi type.
The Pharaoh Hound of Malta and the Cirneco dell’Etna of Sicily were both popularly and controversially thought to be possible descendants of the Tesem.
