The ancient Egyptians seem to have taken as much care with mummifying animals as they did humans, according to new research from the University of Bristol published in Nature this week.
Professor Richard Evershed of the University’s School of Chemistry and colleagues at the University of York studied chemicals in the tissues and wrappings from Pharaonic cat, hawk and ibis mummies.
Their analyses revealed the presence of highly complex mixtures of n-alkyl and cyclic biomarker components characteristic of fats, oils, beeswax, sugar gum, petroleum bitumen and, possibly, cedar resins. This mixture of balms is of comparable complexity to those used to mummify humans from the same period.
Millions of votive mummies of mammals, birds and reptiles were produced throughout ancient Egypt and the scale of production has been taken to indicate that relatively little care and expense was involved in their preparation compared with human mummies. It is generally believed that that animals were mummified by simply being wrapped in coarse linen bandages and/or dipped in ‘resin’.
However, visual inspection of animal mummies suggests that more complex procedures were sometimes used, and it is known that the ancient Egyptians treated animals with great respect, regarding them as both domestic pets and representatives of the gods: for example, the cat symbolized Bastet, the hawk, Horus, and the ibis, Thoth.
Professor Evershed said: “Examination of a cat mummy found traces of beeswax and bitumen, animal and vegetable fat, sugar gum, coniferous resin and resin from the pistacia tree – all fairly exotic substances.
“We also found what appeared to be beeswax on a hawk mummy and a combination of plant oil, sugar gum and wax on an ibis mummy.
“The complexity of the mixtures is analogous to those previously detected in human mummies, and the choice of natural products employed suggests that the ancient Egyptians had an appreciation of their preservative properties.
“These findings thus provide further evidence for animal mummies being prepared using procedures as sophisticated as those employed in human mummification.”
Stephen Buckley, Katherine Clark and Richard Evershed: ‘Complex organic chemical balms of Pharaonic animal mummies’, Nature, Vol 431, 16 September 2004