Everyone knows the sights of Egypt: pyramids, ancient temples, tombs of the pharaohs, the richest collection of the Cairo Museum and, most importantly, mummies. After all, one of the most important places in Egyptian culture was occupied by the cult of life after death. Since Napoleon walked through these lands, interest in the ancient dead has not waned, and with the advent of new technologies, it completely reaches a different level.
Near people
Probably everyone has heard about the beast-like Egyptian gods. Terrible names: Horus, Hathor, Sebek, Bast, Thoth … Their figures are carved in stone and painted on ancient frescoes. Each more or less significant god necessarily had his own temple with an altar and a team of priests.
But, according to the ancients, the gods did not live somewhere in an unattainable region, but next to people. Physical incarnations of Hathor grazed in the fields, Bast curled up on the bench, and in the depths of the Nile Sebek raked majestically with his paws.
Almost any god had his "animal" incarnation or simply an animal symbolizing him. They didn't even forget about the scarab. Interaction with animals was considered an essential part of life. The animals were revered and protected. "Wrong" killing of an animal was punishable by death. Diodorus Siculus, an ancient Greek historian, mentions in his writings an incident that he himself witnessed: the Egyptians lynched a Roman who accidentally killed a cat. Of every five to six hieroglyphs in any ancient inscription discovered, at least two are related to animals.
It would seem that life for the little furry or winged gods in Egypt was free. So, but not quite. And the proof of this is the thousands of mummies found in different parts of the country.
For example, in 1888, an Egyptian farmer, digging up a piece of land, discovered a mass grave of ancient mummified cats. Hundreds of thousands of mummies - a huge layer from 10 to 20 rows of cats in depth. The best samples were immediately sold to tourists, and the rest was sold as fertilizer: at first, European sailors used mummies as ballast on a ship, and upon arrival at the port, these relics were crushed and sold to farmers.
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The barbaric treatment of ancient treasures by Europeans is not surprising: the Old World has always been famous for its disrespect for foreign culture. But why are there so many mummies? This is almost an industrial scale, and I feel sorry for the cats. Let's figure it out.
Second Life
The Egyptians mummified animals on several occasions. First of all, they wanted to give their pet a second life.
Even a modern person does not have any questions here. The ancients loved and cared for their personal animals. In addition to the usual cats and dogs, gazelles, mongooses, birds and monkeys were in fashion then. The loved ones were given names, they took care of them. When the pet died, the owner shaved off his eyebrows as a sign of mourning and, if he could afford, ordered a mummy, so that later, after the death of the owner, it would be placed next to him. Indeed, only in the case of the correct ritual of mummification, the pet had the opportunity to wait for the owner on the other side.
The tombs of domestic animals had everything for their comfortable posthumous existence. The paintings inside the sarcophagi depicted dogs chasing prey, monkeys eating fruit, cats playing with a ball or ball. Most likely, pets died of natural causes - no injuries were found in these mummies when X-rayed.
The most famous deceased beast who has been mummified is the monkey of the queen of Thebes. When the tomb was discovered, a small bundle was found at the feet of the queen's mummy. At first, the scientists thought it was a child. But this version was contradicted by the fact that the queen was a great priestess and, according to tradition, took a vow of celibacy. After much research, they found out that there is a monkey in the package. Such a touching affection.
What to eat after death?
The second reason for the mummification of animals is trivial: they were taken into the afterlife to fulfill the role of food. True, food was not intended for the body, but for the soul - "ka" - for the duration of its journey to another world. In contrast to the thoroughness with which pets were mummified, these "posthumous preserves" were prepared very casually. They simply dried the carcasses with salt, divided into portions and packed for the journey. In the famous tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, not touched by robbers, there were wooden boxes with the game prepared in this way.
Mummy for health
The most unenviable fate was for animals, which had the "high honor" to become the object of sacrifice. The temple cemeteries, where the unfortunate animals were buried, are amazing, but they are becoming the main source of information for archaeologists and scientists.
The mummy of the sacred baboon in the catacombs of Tuna el-Gebel
In addition to the aforementioned destroyed cat burial, several more impressive cemeteries were found.
Ibis in Hermopolis - about a million birds sacrificed to the god Thoth. Ibis were dipped in tar and buried in sealed clay containers, which made it possible to preserve the remains almost in their original form. Thanks to this method, modern scientists can not only draw conclusions about Egyptian culture, but also make assumptions about the climate and ecology of these birds' habitats by examining the contents of their stomachs. By the way, at the moment, ibises are not found in Egypt - the climate has become unsuitable.
In Sakkara, in the famous catacombs of the Temple of Anubis, almost eight million mummies of puppies and adult dogs, as well as jackals, cats, foxes and falcons were found several years ago. After examining these remains, scientists were able to declare: these animals were killed, and not in humane ways - kittens and puppies, for example, just rolled their necks, and some adult dogs were starved to death. On many bodies there are lifetime injuries - poorly healed fractures, traces of disease and lack of food. But the main thing is the quantity! How many unfortunate animals were doomed to death, and for what?
The Egyptians can only be understood by drawing analogies. Coming to the church, a Christian buys a candle, a symbolic sacrifice, and puts it at the icon for a specific purpose. So the ancients, coming to the temple of their bestial deity, bought a mummy that they could afford. The mummy is for health, the mummy is for peace, the mummy is for the harvest …
The official temple business generated enormous revenue for the priests. At every sacred place there was necessarily an embalming workshop, or even more than one. Nearby, there were special nurseries in which sacrificial animals were bred: cats, dogs, baboons, etc. And the conditions for their keeping were worse than you can imagine.
Here is an ancient injustice: a foreigner gets the death penalty for a cat, and a mummy maker gets honor and respect for thousands of animal lives.
Each century has its own swindlers
In any profitable business, sooner or later, scammers appear. The production of sacrificial mummies was no exception. Recent studies have shown that a good third of animal mummies are fake. True, the age of forgeries does not differ from the age of the originals. Mummies were sold ready-made, and it was considered sacrilege to remove bandages from them. This was used by cunning businessmen - they slipped cheap stuff instead of a rare and valuable animal. Or they even put several fragments of bones, reeds and a heap of garbage inside.
Archaeologists even have a sign: the brighter and richer the packaging in which the found mummy is wrapped, the more likely it is a dummy. Which is just another proof: some things do not change even for two millennia. Crooks remain as such at all times.
Yana ROGOZINA