http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3559426/The-secrets-animal-mummies-revealed-Expert-unravels-ancient-processes-preserve-pets-create-divine-effigies.html
The secrets of animal mummies revealed: Expert unravels the ancient processes used to preserve pets and create divine effigies
- Egyptologist detailed how ancient embalmers created the animal mummies
- Process starts by removing organs, drying them out and ends in wrapping
- Expert created rabbit mummies to study the methods - but one exploded
No other culture has venerated animals like the ancient Egyptians, who mummified beloved pets as if they were human and even worshipped cats.
Now, an Egyptologist has detailed how ancient embalmers created these animal mummies, which range in size from diminutive beetles to mighty bulls.
Salima Ikram described the process from removing internal organs to wrapping the animals in strips of linen cloth in a video https://www.youtube.com/user/heritagekeymedia>, where she also describes her own experiments in creating rabbit mummies.
An Egyptologist has detailed how ancient embalmers created animal mummies (one shown), which range in size from diminutive beetles to mighty bulls
The professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo said Ibises were the most commonly mummified animal, but thousands of dogs, cats, cattle and even scarab beetles and shrew mice were preserved 'for eternity'.
The Ibis represented Thoth, the god of wisdom, knowledge and writing and was also credited with bringing floods, which kept the land near the Nile fertile.
Cats were mummified as religious offerings in enormous quantities and were believed to represent the war goddess Bastet, while dogs sometimes represented jackal deities such as Anubis, who was associated with mummification and the afterlife.
Salima Ikram described the process from removing internal organs to wrapping the animals in strips of cloth in a video, where she also describes her own experiments in creating rabbit mummies. A mummy is shown
It is thought there were four main reasons for mummifying animals – to be worshipped as manifestations of certain gods, act as offerings to them, provide food in the afterlife and allow beloved pets to live on in the afterlife. Baboon mummies are shown above and were sacred, as well as being kept as pets
It is thought there were four main reasons for mummifying animals - to be worshipped as manifestations of certain gods, act as offerings to them, provide food in the afterlife and allow beloved pets to live on in the afterlife.
Professor Ikram said the first basic step of the mummification process was to remove the organs in the case of larger animals, in order to dry out the body.
Internal organs are the first part of the body to decompose due to their high water content.
Unlike with humans, where certain ancient organs were retained and placed in canopic jars, animal entrails were simply discarded.
After washing the animals, the ancient experts had to dry them out.
'They did this in the same way they did for humans - by using natron - a combination of salt and baking soda found naturally… in parts of Egypt,' Professor Ikram said.
She explained the material sucks out moisture, which helps preserve the body and also serves as a deodoriser and disinfectant, which would have been particularly helpful in the hot country.
The god Sobek, whose cultural centre was at Crocodilopolis in the Fayum, was represented by a crocodile living in the temple. A few other temples also kept sacred crocodiles, occasionally even a pair of them. A whole mummification industry grew up around his cult, with crocodiles specially grown for the purpose
Embalmers had to grind up large quantities of natron using stones, with a handful needed to embalm a lizard, for example, and perhaps 700 handuls needed to preserve a sheep.
Once dried, an animal's body would have been cleaned and oils applied before it was wrapped up.
For some animals, such as a bull, priests would have recited prayers while it was being wrapped, in an elaborate ceremony, she said.
The god Apis, depicted as a bull, was the most important of all the sacred animals in Egypt and its importance increased as time went on.
Dried animals were wrapped in strips of linen cloth, which was the only textile produced in ancient Egypt.
Because little was written about the mummification process in ancient Egyptian times, and there are few illustrations on the walls of tombs, the best was for Egyptologists to understand the techniques used is experimentation. Professor Ikram made mummified rabbits (pictured above)
'In addition to the control rabbit, we made three other mummies (pictured). The control rabbit actually blew up - exploded - and then it started to dry out but it didn't look very nice,' she said
Bandages were sometimes decorated and placed in shaped wooden coffins.
Because little was written about the mummification process in ancient Egyptian times, and there are few illustrations on the walls of tombs, the best way for Egyptologists to understand the techniques used is experimentation.
'We did various tests to see what happens if you leave a rabbit in open air and then we also did different kinds of experimentation based on mummies that had been successfully made by the ancient Egyptians,' Professor Ikram said.
Her team also made experimental fish mummies using catfish and Nile perch. A number of ancient fish mummies are shown above in a museum collection
'In addition to the control rabbit, we made three other mummies. The control rabbit actually blew up - exploded - and then it started to dry out but it didn't look very nice.
'The other three are made in the way we think the ancient Egyptians would have done.'
She said her team also made experimental fish mummies using catfish and Nile perch
'The mummies prove that what horologists wrote and what they did... was very effective and is probably a good but very expensive ways of mummifying,' she added.
THE GREAT ANIMAL MUMMY SCANDAL
During research into the animal mummies set to go on display in Manchester Museum's Gifts for the Gods exhibition, experts uncovered an ancient scandal.
The high-tech scans revealed a third of the religious offerings were empty, or packed with mud sticks and reeds in the shape of animals.
A third contained well-preserved complete animals while a further third consisted of partial remains.
Scientists said those involved in the industry may simply have struggled to keep up with demand.
Dr Lidija McKnight, Egyptologist at the University of Manchester, told MailOnline: 'Early excavators who unwrapped mummies on site documented that some bundles did not contain complete animals or in fact any animal at all, so this in itself is not new,' she said.
'What this research has shown by looking at a large group is what percentage seem to contain bones and which don't.'
During research into the animal mummies set to go on display in Manchester Museum's Gifts for the Gods exhibition, experts uncovered an ancient scandal. The high-tech scans revealed that a third of the religious offerings were empty, or packed with mud sticks and reeds in the shape of animals (pictured)
'The early preconception - and for quite some time afterwards - was that these empty mummies were fakes, but we now believe that there is more likely to be much more to it.
'She said that sometimes the linen parcels were actually padded out with items from the mummy-maker's home.
'The material being used to create these mummies would have held special significance in its own right to the Egyptians.
'What is more likely to have mattered is that the outside of the mummy looked recognisable to the gods to which it was offered.'
'Basically, organic material such as mud, sticks and reeds, that would have been lying around the embalmers workshops, and also things like eggshells and feathers, which were associated with the animals, but aren't the animals themselves.'
There was a huge demand for animal mummies, which, unlike human mummies, were classed as religious offerings.
Millions of examples have been unearthed in Egypt in vast catacombs containing creatures such as dogs, cats and monkeys.
The demand was so big that animals were mass-bred specifically for the industry.
But many embalmers still left their mummies empty.
Dr McKnight said this may not have meant it was a scam and that those who commissioned the mummies may have known in advance they would be empty.