Deconstructing, deciphering and dating the donkey in Old Kingdom wall painting and relief

The study focusses on analysing the occurrence of the donkey in the animal husbandry scenes of 64 tombs of Dynasties 4 to 6 of ancient Egypt's Old Kingdom. The aim is to investigate the 'beast itself' and 'the beast at work' and also to distinguish between how the animal was perceived and how it was portrayed. The article includes numerous illustrations of relevant scenes and tables of chronological and bibliographic data.