Menagerie of mummies unwraps ancient Egypt

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Menagerie of mummies unwraps ancient Egypt

17:56 08 February 2005

NewScientist.com news service

Will Knight

Mummified monkeys have been found buried alongside their owners

(Image: Natural History Museum)

Enlarge image

Cats were commonly mummified - some as an offering to the god Bastet

(Image: Natural History Museum)A new collection of mummified

creatures could help unravel some of the mysteries surrounding

ancient Egyptian society.

 

The Egyptians mummified both humans and animals to preserve them for

the afterlife. Mummified cats, birds, monkeys and even gazelles have

in the past been found buried alongside their owners.

 

Researchers say the new collection - including mummified cats,

birds, baboons and crocodiles gathered from a variety of

collections - adds weight to the idea that the humble house cat was

first domesticated animal to provide a source of ritual offerings

for the gods.

 

Scientists at the Natural History Museum in London, UK, compared

numerous specimens and used X-rays to peer beneath the animals'

bandages. They found fresh evidence that many were killed

specifically to provide religious offerings.

 

Votive offerings

But animals may also have been mummified as votive offerings to the

gods. Mummified cats, for example, might have been offered to the

feline-headed goddess, Bastet, who Egyptians believed protected the

home.

 

Richard Sabin, curator of mammals at the museum, notes the

collection includes both the African subspecies of wild cat Felis

silvestris lybica and the smaller predecessor to the modern domestic

cat. This may mean mummification might have played a role in the

domestication of the cat.

 

"We're looking at a point in time that is very close to the origin

of the domestic cat," Sabin told New Scientist "It adds to the body

of evidence and to the theory that cats were being bred for the

mummification process."

 

Sabin adds that many of the mummified cats in the collection have

skeletal damage suggesting their necks were deliberately

snapped. "Interestingly, there is the suggestion that these animals

were being selectively bred and killed," he says.

 

Preserved pets

But the new collection also illustrates the fondness with which

Egyptians regarded some of their animals. Jo Cooper, curator of the

bird collection at the museum, notes the preserved birds show

different kinds of mummification. The falcons, for example, thought

to have been kept as pets, are lavishly mummified with great care.

Meanwhile ibises and hawks, which may have made offerings to the

Moon god Thoth, are mummified in a more casual manner.

 

Animal statues and amulets also on display in the exhibition

reinforce the importance of animals in the world of ancient Egypt.

 

"It's interesting to start getting a feel for how people interacted

with animals and to see them as objects of symbolism," says

Cooper. "We're getting insight into the Egyptians as curators and

preparers of these votive offerings."

 

But Sabin also points out that the Egyptians' sheer enthusiasm for

mummification can sometimes pose a problem. "It can be difficult to

draw conclusions because they were mummifying anything they could

get their hands on," he says.

 

The collection will also go on display at the Walter Rothschild

Zoological Museum in Hertfordshire, UK, from 14 February in an

exhibition called Animal Mummies of Ancient Egypt.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6989