Animal Mummies
You have probably heard the expression, "You can't take it with you." Ancient Egyptians would have said the exact opposite. They believed that the afterlife was an extension of this life and when people died, they could take just about everything with them. So the pharaohs and other opulent Egyptians were buried with treasure, food, and even chariots they could ride in the afterlife.
Many of these ancient Egyptians were also buried with animals, some of them pets—cats, dogs, monkeys, birds, and so on.
Like the bodies of their owners, the remains of these household pets were mummified to serve them for the afterlife. In fact, archaeologists have uncovered thousands and thousands of animal mummies from the times of the great Egyptian dynasties—roughly 4,000 B.C. to 3,000 B.C.
Interestingly, most of these animal mummies were not pets. Some animals such as ducks were buried as food for the pharaohs to eat on their way to the next world. For instance, the tomb of Tutankhamen, otherwise known as King Tut, contained lots of duck-shaped and egg-shaped wooden boxes holding various birds and cuts of meat. Other animals were sacrificed in religious rituals as offerings to the many Egyptian gods. Still other animals, such as bulls, were considered sacred: when they died, they were carefully mummified before being placed in tombs.
The ancient Egyptians did keep all sorts of animals as pets, though. In the tomb of Queen Makare, for example, a gazelle was found in a wooden coffin shaped like its body. In the queen's coffin, a small bundle was also buried. It was believed to be the body of her infant daughter, Princess Mutemhet. When it was finally X-rayed in 1968, however, archaeologists discovered to their shock that it contained the remains of a baboon!
The ancient Egyptians were even fonder of their pets than people are today. According to one ancient historian, when a pet cat died, the people in the house shaved their eyebrows. When a dog died, the owners shaved their entire bodies, including their heads! So perhaps it's not surprising that the ancient Egyptians went to such lengths to preserve their pets.
What is surprising—and not completely understood—is why the ancient Egyptians mummified so many other animals, from mice to apes to ibises, which are birds related to the stork. Historians seem to agree that most of these animal mummies played various roles in Egyptian religious ceremonies. Others, like bulls, were apparently worshipped as gods themselves.
Sadly, grave robbers destroyed many of these animal mummies centuries ago. During the 1800s, the British dug up hundreds of thousands of animal mummies and shipped them back to England. But not everything was so grim. During the early twentieth century, a British archaeologist came upon a tomb containing a dog and a baboon, both mummified and perfectly preserved. But they had been unwrapped, apparently by ancient grave robbers, and placed next to each other, eye to eye—as a joke, or perhaps a message, from 3,000 years ago.
The author of this selection would most likely agree with which of these sentences?
A. We don't really know anything about ancient Egypt for sure.
B. Ancient Egyptians' customs were strange but fascinating.
C. Egyptian tombs should be respected and left untouched forever.
D. Americans should treat their pets more like the Egyptians did.
