![]() ![]() Ancient Egyptian pets were given names like we name our pets today, evidenced by more than seventy names deciphered in inscriptions identifying pet dog mummies. Many Egyptians loved their pets, and the customary process of mourning the loss of a loved pet included crying and shaving one's eyebrows. ![]() The most common Egyptian pets included cats, dogs, mongooses, monkeys, gazelles, and birds. ![]() Long before animal mummies were used as religious offerings, animals in Egypt were occasionally mummified for a more personal reason-as beloved pets that were to keep the deceased company in the afterlife. Beloved pets Īnimal mummy containing dog bones, Metropolitan Museum of Art Understandably, this punishment frightened many Egyptians to the point that if one would happen upon a dead animal, they would flee from it as to avoid the accusation of being its killer. Diodorus Siculus, a Greek historian from the first century B.C., witnessed the lynching of a Roman who had accidentally killed a cat during a visit to Egypt. Because of this religious belief, the killing of an animal was considered a serious crime punishable by death. One of these crucial questions would be whether they had mistreated any animals during their life on earth. In order to determine a person's admittance or denial to the afterlife, the deities would ask a series of judgment questions. The Egyptian religion taught of life after death. Some animals were considered to be literal incarnations of the deities, and therefore, it is understandable why Egyptians would have wanted to hold such animals in the highest regard, giving them a proper burial through mummification. Egyptians believed that animals were crucial to both physical and spiritual survival-vital to physical survival because they were a major source of food and to spiritual survival based on how well a person treated animals during their life on earth. It is estimated that two in every four or five Egyptian hieroglyphs relates to animals. In no other culture have animals been as influential in so many aspects of life, nor has any culture depicted animals so often in their artwork or writing. Throughout the history of ancient Egypt, animals were highly respected. Some bird mummies were found wrapped in textiles. ![]() The mummified birds found in Atacama Desert had their organs removed as well as their tail feathers. If bird distribution was as in present, the closest place to Pica from where all bird species could have been captured is Beni Department in northern Bolivia. These mummies were part of unknown rituals and a long-range trade from the humid tropics across the Altiplano and the Andes to reach Atacama Desert in modern Chile. In 1888, an Egyptian farmer digging in the sand near Istabl Antar discovered a mass grave of felines, ancient cats that were mummified and buried in pits at great numbers.Įgypt aside, pre-Columbian bird mummies have been found in the Atacama Desert of Chile, including some next to the oasis town of Pica. Bastet, the cat goddess, is an example of one such deity. Many different types of animals were mummified, typically for four main purposes: to allow beloved pets to go on to the afterlife, to provide food in the afterlife, to act as offerings to a particular god, and because some were seen as physical manifestations of specific deities that the Egyptians worshipped. Animals were an enormous part of Egyptian culture, not only in their role as food and pets, but also for religious reasons. Egyptian mummies of animals in the British Museum.Īnimal mummification was common in ancient Egypt. ![]()
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