Animal Mummies Explained by Dr Salima Ikram

The Egyptians mummified all of the different kinds of animals, and the most commonly mummified ones were probably ibises, but we also have things like cats and dogs, thousands of dogs, cattle, bulls and cows, and even things that are as small as a scarab beetles or shrew mice.

Animals were mummified in the variety of ways, but basically what mummification does is to desiccate the body and so you can be preserved for the eternity. So, the basic thing to do for animal mummification would be to remove, if it's a large animal, the internal organs and to dry out the body. They did this in the same way that they did it for humans – using natron. Natron is a combination of salt and backing soda, which is found naturally precipitated in Wadi El Natrun as well as in some other parts of Egypt. It basically acts as it sucks out all the moisture and dries out the body and also serves as a deodorizer and, to some extent, as disinfectant.

This is what the natron looks like, when you get it at Wadi El Natrun. Then of course this has to be ground up and this would be done by with stones, mortar and pestle. And it takes very long time to get a huge amount of natron, because, this much is probably ok for a lizard, but you would need 700 times this amount were going to do something like a sheep and, again, much more if you were to do the Apis bull.

Once the body is dried, it is covered up and cleaned off, though sometimes oils are applied to it and then it is wrapped up. And often probably for some animals, certainly for the Apis bull, the priest would have a very elaborate time reciting prayers, burning incense during this wrapping period. The wrapping would be done using the linen bandages. Linen was the only kind of textile made in Egypt and of course strips of linen bandages were supposed to be the pure things and so we have these linen bandages that would be used to wrap.

As there is very little written about the mummification process, and there are no real depictions of it on the tomb walls or anywhere else, the best way to try to understand the ins and outs of mummification is, actually, by experimental work. And to understand how animals were mummified I used experimental archaeology and mummified some rabbits. We did various test things to see what happens if we leave the rabbit in open air. And then we also did different kinds of experimentation based on examination of the mummies that had been successfully made by the ancient Egyptians.

In addition to the control rabbit we have three other rabbit mummies. The control rabbit actually blew up and exploded and then it started to dry out, but it didn't look very nice. But these rabbits are made in the way the one that we think that the ancient Egyptians would do this. We also worked experimentally making fish mummies with cat-fish as well as with other kinds of fish, Nile perch. So this one, actually, proved what Herodotus wrote and what they did for the bulls in the South of Egypt, was very effective and probably a good way, but very expensive way of mummifying.

We also worked experimentally making fish mummies with cat-fish as well as with other kinds of fish duvh sd Nile perch. But, unfortunately, I can't show you the Nile perch, because I had it on my balcony after it had been wrapped and prepared, and, unfortunately, a raptor of some sort – a hawk or an eagle – decided that it looked very delicious. So it came down and took it away and ate it, we think. Because I certainly don't have it anymore.