The ancient Egyptians didn’t just mummify people. They also embalmed millions of animals. They could be pets that accompanied their owners to the afterlife or offerings to the gods. The mummies of dung beetles, cats, fish, crocodiles and even bulls are part of the collections of the best museums.
A team of researchers from the British Museum has carried out a pioneering study on lizards that were preserved 2,500 years ago. The experts used an innovative technique called neutron imaging to “peer” inside a group of six sealed coffins in the 1st millennium BC at various sites across pharaoh-ruled territory, including Naukratis and Tell el-Yehudiyeh in the delta. of the Nile.
The neutron images, more effective than X-rays in seeing through metal, allowed the mummies to be ‘unwrapped’ and organic remains to be seen through their copper alloy containers with lead or bronze, confirming that the coffins -wrapped on cloth, probably linen – contained bones that were probably North African wall lizards.
Linen was widely used in Egyptian mummification practices for both animals and humans. As common was one as the other. These lizards were not pets, but were mummified as part of religious beliefs and practices that thrived particularly in the first millennium BC.
Archaeologists believe that they were linked to the cult of Atum, the creator god and solar god, “the one who exists by himself.” It was often depicted as a creature with a human head and a body that was part cobra and part eel, as seen on two coffins the team analyzed.
Some mummified animals, such as bulls, were selected during their lifetime by priests because they were believed to be the physical incarnations of Egyptian gods. These animals would then live in a sanctuary dedicated to the god until his natural death.
Most of the mummified animals, such as cats and ibis, were bred in large numbers and sometimes killed young. They probably represented sacred offerings or perhaps they were mummified at religious festivals. This may have been the case with the lizards studied by the experts at the British Museum.
“In the first millennium BC, lizards were commonly mummified, as were other reptiles, cats, dogs, hawks, ibises, shrews, fish… Lizards, like snakes and eels, were particularly associated with solar gods and creators. from ancient Egypt as Atum and perhaps, in the case of Naukratis, with Amun-Ra Shenaâ€, says Dr. Aurélia Masson-Berghoff.
Animals associated with specific Egyptian deities embalmed after their death were sometimes buried in labyrinthine buildings. It is estimated that some of these underground complexes contained hundreds of thousands of mummies, experts explain in an article published in the journal Scientific Reports.
Three of the coffins analyzed were discovered in Naukratis, in a cache where many sacred objects were found, including more than a hundred animal graves, mostly crowned with figures of lizards, eels and snakes. An inscription from the 3rd century B.C. indicates that in this cosmopolitan port on the banks of the Nile the god Amun-Ra was venerated in his serpent form, and it is possible that these offerings were dedicated to him.
Only a small proportion of the animals that ended up mummified were then placed in statue- or coffin-shaped metal containers with a representation on top. The reason for this could be that the containers were quite expensive to make and required crafting expertise.
Specialists also point out that it could be related to the way in which the deposits were used or displayed. Some of the animal coffins had one or more loops welded to their surface, suggesting that they may have been hung, probably for religious purposes.
“By using neutron imaging capabilities, we were able to study sealed coffins non-invasively and increase our knowledge about the fascinating world of animal mummification in ancient Egypt,” explains Dr Daniel O’Flynn.
