Unusual Mummified Animals (5 pics)

The ancient Egyptians mummified animals as well as humans.
Animals of all kinds were important to the Ancient Egyptians, and
featured in the daily secular and religious lives of farmers, craftsmen,
priests and rulers. Animals were reared mainly for food, whilst others
were kept as pets. The bodies of sacred animals and some pets were
often mummified and given elaborate burials.
A queen’s pet gazelle was readied for eternity with the same lavish care
as a member of the royal family. In fine, blue-trimmed bandages and a
custom-made wooden coffin, it accompanied its owner to the grave in
about 945 B.C. Egyptian Museum, Cairo

Lovingly preserved, a hunting dog whose bandages fell off long ago
likely belonged to a pharaoh. As a royal pet, it “would have been fed
nibbly bits and spoiled rotten,” says Salima Ikram. When it died, it was
interred in a specially prepared tomb in the Valley of the Kings.


A raptor with an appliquéd face holds only a few bones.

Votive mummies, each buried with a prayer, are infinitely varied but
not always what they seem. A cunning crocodile is a fake—it has
nothing inside.


Baboon harbors a secret that helps identify it as a pet: An x-ray
revealed missing canine teeth, probably removed to keep the creature
from nipping royal fingers.