© Courtesy of National Museum of Natural History
Head of mummified cat.
Millions of animals were ritually slaughtered in ancient Egypt to foster a huge mummification industry that even drove some species extinct.
As an
exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. shows, almost no animals escaped the carnage.
Although pets died of natural causes before their mummification, and sacred beasts were pampered by adoring priests, most animals in ancient Egypt had miserable, short lives.
Many were simply bred to become votive mummies -- offered to the gods in the same way that people light up candles in churches today.
"Various gods had different animal totems or avatars. Priests who maintained temples for these different gods offered a service whereby people could have an associated animal mummified and placed in a catacomb in their name," exhibition curator Melinda Zeder, director of the archeobiology program at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, told Discovery News.
Began as early as 3,000 BC, the practice reached its zenith from about 650 BC to 200 AD.
"Literally millions of animals like dogs and cats were raised by temple priests and mummified. This practice extended to wild animals like the sacred and glossy ibis and the baboon -- and may have contributed to the extinction of these animals in Egypt," Zeder said.
The sacred ibis and baboons were mummified in the millions because they were sacred to Thoth, the god of wisdom and writing. Raptors were associated with Horus, the falcon god, while cats were sacrificed to the protective goddess Bastet.
