The Conversation

Holy bin chickens: ancient Egyptians tamed wild ibis for sacrifice

Author: Sally Wasef, Postdoctoral research fellow, Griffith University

A scene from the Books of the Dead (based at the Egyptian Museum) shows the ibis-headed god Thoth recording the result of "the final judgement".Wasef et al./PLOS ONE, CC BY-SA

These days, not many Aussies consider the ibis a particularly admirable creature.

But these birds, now colloquially referred to as “bin chickens” due to their...

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