The goddess Bastet was embodied by the cat; Horus was represented by the falcon or baboon; Thoth was symbolized by the ibis; Sobek was worshipped in the form of a crocodile, and so on.
So many millions of animals were preserved that many experts assumed that, in order to meet demand, the Egyptians used a fast-track mummification process — essentially wrapping the creature in coarse linen bandages and then plunging it into a vat of resin before it expired.
Not so, according to a team of British organic chemists.
The latest forensic tools of chromatography and mass spectrometry were applied to gain a chemical fingerprint from the tissues and wrappings of mummified cats, hawks and ibises that dated from the ninth to the fourth centuries B.C.
The study revealed that the embalmers carefully used a wide range of substances, some of them precious and costly, for ensuring that the animals' mortal remains would endure. The materials included oils, fats, bitumens, beeswax, as well as pine and possibly cedar resins.
"The mixture of balms is of comparable complexity to those used to mummify humans," the impressed scientists said.
The study was lead-authored by Richard Evershed of the University of Bristol, western England.
Egypt's Cats Got Pharaoh Treatment
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