Millions of dogs and other small animals were killed, mummified, and entombed in dark catacombs in ancient Egypt. These vast underground caverns, with crumbling stone walls and debris from millennia of neglect, lie beneath the sand-swept necropolis of Saqqara, near the ancient city of Memphis. Here, the mummified remains of approximately 8 million animals, mostly dogs, are piled one atop another.
Unlike the pharaohs, these animal remains are not interred within sarcophagi. Among them are cats, jackals, foxes, and falcons. Archaeologists have discovered that these remains range in age from a few hours to many years. What may seem like a ghastly act of cruelty is rooted in the ancient Egyptian concept of life, death, and the afterlife.
Catacombs at Saqqara. Image source: Wikimedia Commons
Ancient Egyptian Religion and Animals
The religion of ancient Egypt, like many early religions, revered and aligned with the natural world. A common tenet was the reverence for animals, depicted frequently in hieroglyphs on cities, temples, pyramids, and everyday objects. Even the gods often possessed the physical characteristics of both man and animal.
The canine-headed god of the Underworld, Anubis, and the human-headed winged lion, the Sphinx, are prime examples of such hybrid deities. Certain animals were accorded godly status because they shared features with these deities. Killing a cat, for instance, was a crime punishable by death.
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Anubis, the canine-headed god of the Underworld. Image source: Wikimedia Commons
The ancient Egyptian religion regarded physical existence on earth as a prelude to an afterlife which worked along very similar rules. From the treasures that have been found inside the pyramids, it is evident that their beliefs dictated that it was possible to ‘cross over’ from the earthly plane with material objects.
Reasons for Mummification
The mummification of animals served several purposes:
- Religious Offerings: The 8 million mummified dogs and other animals below the temple of Anubis at Saqqara are a prime example. Wolves, dogs, jackals, and foxes were the preferred votive offerings to Anubis. It is speculated that vast puppy farms near the temple provided a steady stream of corpses for the priests to mummify.
- Companionship: Some animals were mummified to accompany their owners in the afterlife. These animal mummies received the most care and attention. The placement of an animal mummy inside the sarcophagus, in such close proximity to the human mummy, indicates that they shared a strong bond in life.
- Food for the Dead: Similar to practices in other cultures, some animals were mummified as food for the deceased. These mummies differed from religious offerings and pet mummies in that the meat was dried and then wrapped in linen.
Experts studying the animal mummies at Saqqara are confident that they all fall into the second category, religious offerings. Yet, they were not all treated the same. Instead of being piled up in the chambers, these mummies were found in special niches within the rock.
10 Mummy Discoveries That SCARED Archaeologists
The Discovery at El Deir
A dog mummy discovered at the excavation site of El Deir in Egypt revealed the first archaeological evidence of bloodsucking parasites plaguing dogs during the Roman rule era. The preserved parasites, including the common brown tick and louse fly, were found in the mummified young dog's right ear and coat. These tiny nuisances may have carried diseases leading to the puppy's early demise.
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The infested dog mummy was found among more than 400 dog mummies. The French team detailed its findings in the August online issue of the International Journal of Paleopathology. The first evidence of a severe infection by ectoparasites (parasites that live outside the host) revealed by the presence of numerous ticks still firmly anchored in the dog's ear.
Dog mummy infested with parasites. Image credit: Live Science
The infested young pup stood out with 61 preserved brown dog ticks still clinging to its coat and nestled in its left ear. Such ticks have spread worldwide by feeding on domesticated dogs. They can also infect their hosts with a variety of potentially fatal diseases.
Archaeologists also discovered a single bloodsucking louse fly clinging firmly to the dog's coat. But the team hypothesizes a tick-borne disease such as canine babesiosis - a condition that destroys red blood cells - likely caused the young dog's premature death.
The Catacombs of Anubis
In ancient Egypt, so many people worshiped Anubis, the jackal-headed god of death, that the catacombs next to his sacred temple once held nearly 8 million mummified puppies and grown dogs, a new study finds.
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The catacombs were likely built in the fourth century B.C., and were made out of stone from the Lower Eocene (about 56 million to 48 million years ago). So, it was a nice surprise when researchers discovered a fossil in the catacomb's ceiling. The fossil belonged to a long-extinct marine vertebrate, likely a relative of modern-day manatees and dugongs, Nicholson said.
In addition to canine mummies, they found the mummies of jackals, foxes, falcons, cats and mongoose, although about 92 percent of the remains belonged to dogs, they found. It's unclear why these other animals were buried in the dog catacomb, "but it is likely that all 'doglike' creatures were interchangeable, and that mythological reasons probably underlie the choice of cats and raptors," the researchers wrote in the study, published in the June issue of the journal Antiquity.
Pilgrims visiting Saqqara likely viewed the display of the mummies as expressions of gratitude that the gods would appreciate, Nicholson said. Many of the dogs were only hours or days old when they were mummified. Some older dogs had more elaborate burials, and may have lived at the temple, but the younger pups were likely "bred - farmed if you will - for the cult," Nicholson said.
It's likely that these young pups were separated from their mothers and died from dehydration or starvation. "They probably weren't killed by physical action; we don't have evidence of broken necks that you get with cat burials," Nicholson said.
Dog Breeds in Ancient Egypt
When the ancient Egyptians mummified dogs, what dogs exactly were they mummifying? It turns out that some of the mummified canids were wolves, according to a paper published by Colline Brassard of the Natural History Museum in Paris with colleagues in the Springer journal of Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences.
Analysis of the bones detected the gray wolf of the Middle East and the golden wolf of Africa, the team writes. Their conclusions are based on a three-dimensional, landmark-based, geometric morphometric approach - which means they mapped out the shape of the skulls. This is the first time the gray wolf has been identified among the many millions of animals the Egyptians mummified, the team says.
The researchers compared the deceased dog skulls with those of modern canids, including 38 different domestic breeds, feral dogs (mutts) and 157 wild canids in the Near East and Africa that were likely to have shown up in ancient Egypt.
Separate work detected the presence of other mummified canidae too: smaller ones - foxes and jackals. As for the dogs, at least some were clearly as cherished as some pooches in the modern era.
The Story of Abuwtiyuw
“The dog who was the guard of His Majesty. Abuwtiyuw was his name. His Majesty ordered that he be buried, that he be given a coffin” - inscription for pharaoh's dog, 6th Dynasty Egypt.
Abuwtiyuw is one of the earliest known animal names in the historic record. Said Abuwtiyuw went to the afterlife shrouded in fine linens: the pharaoh ordered this so the dog would be honored before Anubis, according to interpretation of translation of the ancient text.
The Role of Dogs in Ancient Egyptian Society
At the end of the day, argument persists over the role of dogs (and cryptic wolves) in ancient Egyptian society. Symbol? Votive offering? Companion/servant? Pet? Meal? All of the above? Images of dogs appear in tombs and artwork, statuary and children’s toys.
The earliest known evidence of domesticated dogs in Egypt dates to about 6,500 years ago. Love, archaeologists surmise, may have been involved.
The Saqqara Dog Burials
The remains of mummified dogs at the canid catacombs at Saqqara provide startling evidence to suggest that these dogs weren’t treated with care. In the Teti North cemetery at Saqqara, thousands of disarticulated dog bones have been found across three New Kingdom burial chambers. These burials can also be viewed in conjunction to the major dog catacombs at Saqqara, which were found to contain nearly 8 million canid burials.
Mummified canids at Saqqara also possessed significant dental pathologies, including instances of periodontal disease and before death tooth loss. One study found 10 young dogs with evidence of this disease in its early stages. 40 of the dogs in this study also had perforations on their bottom palate. These perforations can also be caused by chewing on pieces of splintered bone out of hunger and desperation. Dogfighting is often an indication of overcrowding. 90% of dogs studied were under 6 years old at the time of death.
Here's a table summarizing the key findings regarding dog mummies at Saqqara:
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Number of Burials | Nearly 8 million canid burials |
| Dental Pathologies | Periodontal disease, tooth loss |
| Age at Death | 90% under 6 years old |
| Palate Perforations | Evidence of dogfighting or chewing on splintered bones |
| Interpretation | Suggests mass breeding and less reverence than previously thought |
Animal Mummification: A Broader Perspective
Animal mummification was common in ancient Egypt. Animals were an important part of Egyptian culture, not only in their role as food and pets, but also for religious reasons. Many different types of animals were mummified, typically for four main purposes: to allow people's 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.
Specific archaeological findings have confirmed that pets were mummified. The most famous example of this is the Theban priestess Maatkare Mutemhat’s African green monkey (Chlorocebus aethiops). When her tomb was discovered, there was a small, mummified bundle present at her feet, which was initially believed to be her child.
The vast majority of Egyptian animal mummies were religious offerings. However, eventually animal mummies-a cheaper alternative to bronze statues-became the most popular form of offering. As such, millions of these mummified animals have been discovered throughout Egypt.
As the process of animal mummification for the purpose of offerings grew, mummification techniques became progressively less meticulous. Studies have revealed many of the large-scale animal offerings to be "fakes" (the wrappings containing only a few bones, feathers, reeds, wood, or pieces of pottery).
In certain cases, such as the Apis bull, the animal could even be a way to communicate the desires of the deity. The cycle of selecting a new totem animal continued for hundreds of years.
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