Clare Gibson's letter in The Times, January 7, 2009, gives a tantalising glimpse of some of the treasures in store in our forthcoming release The Hidden Life of Ancient Egypt (October 2009 - details coming soon) - the latest in the popular Hidden Life series, which decodes the symbols in great works of art, revealing the hidden meanings.

Sir, Further to Robert Wolton’s letter (“Reiss on Charles Darwin and faith”, Jan 5), it is clear from their art that the Ancient Egyptians believed that baboons (Papio hamadryas) worshipped God (or a god), in his manifestation as the rising sun, and that they paid homage to Re, or Re-Horakhty, each morning at dawn.

This belief was derived from baboons’ tendency to unleash a raucous dawn chorus at daybreak, which was interpreted as jubilance, relief, wonder and awe at the Sun’s daily reappearance, and from their habit of extending their paws towards the Sun, the better to allow its rays to warm a night-chilled undercarriage. The baboons’ upraised arms posture is, moreover, thought to have been the basis of the pose that, according to Ancient Egyptian artistic convention, was used to convey such related concepts as adoring, praising and worshipping a divine or superior being, which was not limited to depictions of baboons.
Clare Gibson
Author, The Hidden Life of Egyptian Art, London W4