The Royal Menagerie - Animals at The Tower of London

Now, of course, we're talking about...

England and France and diplomatic gifts and Norway, so very sort of Europe-focused in the 1200s.

But actually, there's a much broader culture to this, isn't there, Mishka?

Yes, there seem to have been zoos in the ancient world.

The oldest zoo that we know of, discovered by archaeology, seems to have been in a place called Hierakonopolis, which seems to have been the capital of Upper Egypt during the pre-dynastic period, the pre-Pharonic period that we're familiar with today.

So there, there were animals found, bones of animals, along with the remains of elite members of society.

And there seemed to have been several different kinds of animals, including, I believe, a baboon and an elephant.

So animals seemed to have... been part of their collection, but they could have been collected as exotic animals, but they could also have been seen as intermediaries between the human world and the world of gods.

And in this sense, animals were seen to have a special power that was not available to humans.

So that's absolutely fascinating that we're talking about these collections of animals in ancient Egypt.

And yet here we are, you know, talking about the Towers Menagerie story, which is really beginning in the medieval period.

Yes.

And of course, when we use the word menagerie, that's a more relatively modern term.

So when we apply it to these older collections, we're actually deferring to a varied range of realities in which the animals were kept.

But we certainly have medieval menageries also in the Muslim world, in the Islamic world.

And we know that there were also in the 17th century, there were collections of animals in the Mughal Empire.

And more recently in the Ottoman Empire.

And we have wonderful records and accounts written by Western travellers to the Ottoman world, writing about some of these animals and where they were kept.

And we know that Europeans visiting Constantinople, as it was known in the Middle Ages, which is now Istanbul, would have seen animals in places like the Great Palace and in ancient churches.

So animals were kept in lots of different ways.

And it's interesting that these early writers were talking about where these animals were kept.

We know a little bit about that at the Tower, don't we, Emma?

We do.

We can piece together that information from financial and administrative records, payments to keepers, payments for buildings for the animals.

Follow the money.

Now, of course, we're talking about...

England and France and diplomatic gifts and Norway, so very sort of Europe-focused in the 1200s.

But actually, there's a much broader culture to this, isn't there, Mishka?

Yes, there seem to have been zoos in the ancient world.

The oldest zoo that we know of, discovered by archaeology, seems to have been in a place called Hierakonopolis, which seems to have been the capital of Upper Egypt during the pre-dynastic period, the pre-Pharonic period that we're familiar with today.

So there, there were animals found, bones of animals, along with the remains of elite members of society.

And there seemed to have been several different kinds of animals, including, I believe, a baboon and an elephant.

So animals seemed to have... been part of their collection, but they could have been collected as exotic animals, but they could also have been seen as intermediaries between the human world and the world of gods.

And in this sense, animals were seen to have a special power that was not available to humans.

So that's absolutely fascinating that we're talking about these collections of animals in ancient Egypt.

And yet here we are, you know, talking about the Towers Menagerie story, which is really beginning in the medieval period.

Yes.

And of course, when we use the word menagerie, that's a more relatively modern term.

So when we apply it to these older collections, we're actually deferring to a varied range of realities in which the animals were kept.

But we certainly have medieval menageries also in the Muslim world, in the Islamic world.

And we know that there were also in the 17th century, there were collections of animals in the Mughal Empire.

And more recently in the Ottoman Empire.

And we have wonderful records and accounts written by Western travellers to the Ottoman world, writing about some of these animals and where they were kept.

And we know that Europeans visiting Constantinople, as it was known in the Middle Ages, which is now Istanbul, would have seen animals in places like the Great Palace and in ancient churches.

So animals were kept in lots of different ways.

And it's interesting that these early writers were talking about where these animals were kept.

We know a little bit about that at the Tower, don't we, Emma?

We do.

We can piece together that information from financial and administrative records, payments to keepers, payments for buildings for the animals.

Follow the money.