Abuwtiyuw (Abutiu) is one of earliest known named domestic animals. He was a dog who received an elaborate funeral and tomb from an unknown pharaoh, in hopes that he be honored before Anubis. Full translation in comments. 2345–2181 BC [911×516]

The full translation of Abuwtiyuw’s memorial is (read from the upper right corner to the bottom left):

“The dog which was the guard of His Majesty, Abuwtiyuw is his name. His Majesty ordered that he be buried ceremonially, that he be given a coffin from the royal treasury, fine linen in great quantity, and incense. His Majesty gave perfumed ointment, and (ordered) that a tomb be built for him by the gangs of masons. His Majesty did this for him in order that he (the dog) might be Honoured (before the great god, Anubis).”

Abuwtiyuw’s grave has never been found, this section of hieroglyphs is all that remains of his memory. The fragment was taken from its original location and used in the build of another, unrelated tomb around 2280 BCE. Abuwtiyuw appears to have been a sighthound, similar in appearance to a modern day greyhound

Good boy, Abutiu

I love that humans have always loved animals

Individual animals named in ancient text have always been weirdly endearing to me. I know that from a fragment of a carved shell from somewhere in the Maya area, some Mayan scribe named Popol Tz’i in the late classic period wrote about what seems to be his pet parrot. The name is a little hard to understand, but it appears to be something along the lines of “Ajubi?ch(i)” if it is written entirely phonetically. Even cooler, on this same shell fragment, while the image of Popol Tz’i himself is broken off, there is a picture of his pet parrot, and with how the scene and text are rendered, it appears that the bird is talking- possibly the earliest record of a pet talking parrot.