Following is an excerpt from an article written by Karen B. London, Ph.D. is a
Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist, Certified Professional Dog
Trainer, author, and an Adjunct Faculty in NAU’s Department of
Biological Sciences. She wrote about the fascinating topic of animal mummies. Although some animals were mummified for sacrifices to the Egyptian Gods, others were so they could accompany their masters into the afterlife.Egyptian animal mummies By
Animal mummies were definitely beyond my usual
experiences with the natural world. Mummies are dead animals that have
been preserved due to very specific conditions. (Skin and organs of
deceased individuals only resist decay if exposed to specific conditions
such as chemicals, extreme cold, low humidity, or hypoxia.) The term
“mummies” usually refers to bodies embalmed with chemicals, but
“accidental” mummies have been recovered from extreme habitats such as
high in the Alps and bogs.
In Ancient Egypt, millions of mummies were
made on purpose because a well-preserved body was considered critical
for a good afterlife. Not all of them were human.
Egyptians
mummified cats for multiple reasons: allowing a cherished pet to
accompany a person in the afterlife, to provide food, or as offerings to
the goddess Bastet, who was depicted as a lioness, a cat, or a woman
with a feline head. Some cats were raised specifically for
mummification. They were sold to people to leave in the temple as an
offering after they worshipped a particular god. Many such kittens were
two to four months old, and some experts believe this was simply because
their small size made fitting them into mummy containers easier.
I
knew that cats were held in high esteem by the Ancient Egyptians and
even that they were buried with their owners, so the existence of huge
numbers of cat mummies was not a big shock. On the other hand, it was
surprising to learn that so many other species of animals were
mummified. Common pet mummies included dogs, baboons, monkeys, gazelles,
and mongooses. Crocodiles, fish and bulls were also mummified in great
numbers along with the occasional ram or hippo. According to some
sources, the most commonly mummified animal was the ibis, with over four
million discovered, making them many times more plentiful than cats,
which are in a distant second place.
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Want to learn about how Pets communicate from the other side?
PETS AND THE AFTERLIFE by Rob Gutro: The loss of a pet is like the loss of a child to pet owners. The love we share with our pets never dies, and in a new book called "Pets and the Afterlife" by Rob Gutro, the author provides proof that our pets do communicate with us from the other side. Available in paperback and E-book, on Amazon.com and other outlets at: To order paperback of Kindle- click here http://tinyurl.com/mqgamq2%20http://tinyurl.com/mqgamq2%20
PETS AND THE AFTERLIFE by Rob Gutro: The loss of a pet is like the loss of a child to pet owners. The love we share with our pets never dies, and in a new book called "Pets and the Afterlife" by Rob Gutro, the author provides proof that our pets do communicate with us from the other side. Available in paperback and E-book, on Amazon.com and other outlets at: To order paperback of Kindle- click here http://tinyurl.com/mqgamq2%20http://tinyurl.com/mqgamq2%20
