The horns of Ammon were curling ram horns, used as a symbol of the Egyptian deity

Ammon Ammon ( Ammonite: 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''ʻAmān''; he, עַמּוֹן ''ʻAmmōn''; ar, عمّون, ʻAmmūn) was an ancient Semitic-speaking nation occupying the east of the Jordan River, between the torrent valleys of Arnon and Jabbok, in ...

(also spelled Amun or Amon). Because of the visual similarity, they were also associated with the fossils shells of ancient snails and cephalopods, the latter now known as ammonite because of that historical connection.The Origin Of Geological Terms: Ammonites
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Classical iconography

A fossil ammonite, showing its horn-like spiral Ammon, eventually Amon-Ra, was a deity in the

Egyptian pantheon Ancient Egyptian deities are the gods and goddesses worshipped in ancient Egypt. The beliefs and rituals surrounding these gods formed the core of ancient Egyptian religion, which emerged sometime in prehistory. Deities represented natural f ...

whose popularity grew over the years, until growing into a monotheistic religion in a way similar to the proposal that the Judeo-Christian deity evolved out of the Ancient Semitic pantheon. Egyptian pharaohs came to follow this religion for a while, Amenhotep and

Tutankhamun Tutankhamun (, egy, twt-ꜥnḫ-jmn), Egyptological pronunciation Tutankhamen () (), sometimes referred to as King Tut, was an Egyptian pharaoh who was the last of his royal family to rule during the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty (ruled ...

taking their names from their deity. This trend caught on, with other Egyptian gods also sometimes being described as aspects of Amun. Ammon was often depicted with ram's horns, so that as this deity became a symbol of supremacy, kings and emperors came to be depicted with Horns of Ammon on the sides of their head in profile, as well as the deities not only of Egypt, but other areas, so that Jupiter was sometimes depicted as "Jupiter Ammon", replete with Horns of Ammon, after Rome conquered Egypt, as was the Greek supreme deity

Zeus Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek reli ...

. This tradition continued for centuries, with

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...

being referred to in the

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , s ...

as “ Dhul Qarnayn” (The Two-Horned One), a reference to his depiction on Middle Eastern coins and statuary as having horns of Ammon. His deification as a conqueror had involved being declared the metaphorical "Son of Ammon" by the Oracle at Siwa.

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...

was among the earliest writers known to have associated spiral shells with the deity Ammon, referring to them as (horns of Ammon) in his book .'' NH'' 37.40.167 Considering the relative rarity of ammonite fossils in Egypt, this may have originated with fossil snail shells like ''natica hybrida'' found in Mokattam limestone near

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

. The direct attribution of the Horns of Ammon with fossil cephalopod shells became common during

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

times with mentions by writers like

Georgius Agricola Georgius Agricola (; born Georg Pawer or Georg Bauer; 24 March 1494 – 21 November 1555) was a German Humanist scholar, mineralogist and metallurgist. Born in the small town of Glauchau, in the Electorate of Saxony of the Holy Roman Empire ...

and

Conrad Gesner Conrad Gessner (; la, Conradus Gesnerus 26 March 1516 – 13 December 1565) was a Swiss physician, naturalist, bibliographer, and philologist. Born into a poor family in Zürich, Switzerland, his father and teachers quickly realised his tale ...

. These led to a widespread association that climaxed with paleontologist Karl Alfred von Zittel naming the class of animals Ammonoidea in 1848.

References

{{reflist Egyptian mythology Paleontology Fossils Ancient Egyptian religion