Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck
Due to their importance to the culture, the ancient Egyptians frequently mummified animals as well as humans – or did they? New evidence uncovered by UK researchers appears to reveal the existence of a centuries-old scandal involving animal mummies.
According to BBC News, up to 70 million animals were mummified and buried underground in catacombs in more than 30 sites throughout Egypt. However, an ongoing scanning project at the Manchester Museum and the University of Manchester has found that roughly one-third of those cloth bundles do not actually contain any skeletal remains or animal material at all.
The project, which was being filmed by the BBC’s Horizon program has part of a documentary set to air Monday, is said to be the largest scanning project of its kind. More than 800 mummies, some containing cats, birds and crocodiles, have been scanned using X-rays and CT scans.
Animal mummies given as religious offerings
According to the British news organization, about one-third of the mummies scanned thus far have contained complete animals, some of which were very well preserved. Another one-third contained partial remains, while the rest have been empty, with zero trace of biological remains in the cloth bundles, University of Manchester Egyptologist Dr. Lidija McKnight said.
“We always knew that not all animal mummies contained what we expected them to contain, but we found around a third don’t contain any animal material at all – so no skeletal remains,” she told BBC News. In actuality, the linen was filled “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.”
While humans were mummified in order to preserve their bodies for the afterlife, animals were mummified as a religious offering, since they were worshipped as gods by the ancient Egyptians, explained Dr. Campbell Price, curator of Egypt and Sudan, at Manchester Museum. They were bought and served as “votive gifts,” and were given to and buried by a priest.
Empty mummies most likely not part of a scam
The fact that the excavations have turned up so many mummies reveals that demand for these votive gifts was high, but the researchers said that they do not believe that the partial or empty ones were sold as an attempt to scam overly-trusting men and women. In fact, they believe that many knew they were not purchasing a complete animal specimen.
“We think there is probably more to it than that,” Dr McKnight told the BBC. “We think they were mummifying pieces of animals that were lying around, or materials associated with the animals during their lifetime – so nest material or eggshells.”
“They were special because they had been in close proximity with the animals – even though they weren’t the animals themselves,” she added. “So we don’t think it’s forgery or fakery. It’s just that they were using everything they could find. And often the most beautifully wrapped mummies don’t contain the animal remains themselves.”
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