Millions of Mummy Puppies Revealed at Egyptian Catacombs

Now this is something you don't read about everyday..

The excavation of a labyrinth of tunnels beneath the Egyptian desert has revealed the remains of millions of animals, mostly dogs and jackals. Many appear to have been only hours or days old when they were killed and mummified. The Dog Catacombs, as they are known, date to 747-730 B.C., and are dedicated to the Anubis, the Egyptians' jackal-headed god of the dead. They were first documented in the 19th century; however, they were never fully excavated. A team, led by Paul Nicholson, an archaeologist at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom, is now examining the tunnels and their contents, they announced this week. [Image of mummified puppy remains]

source

They estimate the catacombs contain the remains of 8 million animals and that virtually nothing is known of these catacombs.

This is the first i have ever heard of them....

"Our findings indicate a rather different view of the relationship between people and the animals they worshipped than that normally associated with the ancient Egyptians, since many animals were killed and mummified when only a matter of hours or days old," Nicholson said. "These animals were not strictly 'sacrificial.' Rather, the dedication of an animal mummy was regarded as a pious act, with the animal acting as intermediary between the donor and the gods

Interesting, to say the least..

I know they revered cats, and there are a lot of cat mummies as well, but I didn't know they killed the animals on purpose. Also, it's odd that so many of these dog mummies were puppies, if there's that many of them then I wonder if they bred dogs just for this purpose. I'm a huge animal lover, so I wish I hadn't read the article.

I find this very strange honestly. I get that this place must have been dedicated to Anubis, and the animals were some form of offering. But the sheer amount of animals is astounding. I want to know how large these catacombs are to contain countless millions of mummified corpses.

Haha you are in my head!

I was just reading about this about an hour ago and was gonna make a thread on it but had to leave for a bit.

I thought this was actually pretty cool to read, glad someone shared it.

I wonder why they would mummify all these animals.

Puppy into mummy for daddy.
Would be funny if it was some cat god who sanctioned the deaths

reply to post by Praxilla


I am also having a hard time trying to understand why millions of puppies/dogs/jackals were mummified like this..

I tried searching for a reason but came up blank..

this is a really odd find...

but there must be a reason behind these mummification's..

reply to post by mblahnikluver


here is a quote that i don't understand at all...why would they do this?

They estimate the catacombs contain the remains of 8 million animals. Given the sheer numbers of animals, it is likely they were bred by the thousands in puppy farms around the ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis, according to the researchers. The Dog Catacombs are located at Saqqara, the burial ground for the ancient capital Memphis.

Hmmmm animals killed for religion.Seems kinda like humans killed for religion.Why is there all the killing for religion?

reply to post by baddmove


Yeah that makes no sense.

Worth looking into I think

I have always been fascinated by Ancient Egyptians and their ways.

I mean millions! That is a lot of mummification.

reply to post by Praxilla


I feel the same. I could have done without reading it as well.
That is a sad thing to think about.

Well, the realm of the dead was a fully reverential subject from what we know of the Ancient Egyptians. More than likely, they considered themselves to be sending these puppies to a much greater place. They may also have been doing this so that some particular Pharaoh would have 8 million puppies in the afterlife. An army, or a comfy puppy bed, or just the most adorable Pharaoh Ghost ever? We may never know.

This is really quite simple;

1. If the mummified puppy remains show signs of blunt trauma or violent death, then they were sacrificed.

2. Over a period of time, perhaps there was a particularly nasty virus or bacterial infection that killed off most puppies and because they were revered, they were then mummified.

Also, it's my own belief that the Sphinx is not a cat but is actually a sitting Beagle with a human head. Anyone who has ever owned one of these dogs will know how easily primitive cultures night deify such a great animal.

Interesting article.... I wonder if one puppy from each litter was sacrificed and then mummified as a 'thank you' to the gods.

Dogs have been extremely important throughout human history so although they may not of been worshipped as such people would of been thankful for a good litter of strong healthy pups and the idea's at the time would of meant that the god's or the dead should receive their fair share.

reply to post by Versa


O.K. makes sense to me...but...

Over 8 million of them...

the numbers are staggering ...

like another poster said...

must have been 100's of puppy farms going all over Egypt....

Yeah I don't get it either.. over 8 million

They must have been collecting them from all over, like crazy...

Really, it's just wrong

Eight million is a lot, no doubt it must have been over time. My initial thoughts are that it's possible they were sacrificed, cult-like, to Anubis. Or was that a Canidae cemetery, with not wanting to mix them felines. That which would also account for the high number of mummies. It doesn't seem likely they were used to experiment with embalming techniques, as there would be more than just Canidae.

Human sacrifice in Ancient Egypt, as with animals, happened after a pharaoh died and they wanted the servants and companions to go to the afterlife with that person. This practice didn't go beyond the First Dynasty. Why would they have their own cemetery then? That's why it seems for a different, or general burial reason.

Here's a few clues from Wikipedia Animal Mummy...

Animals buried in sperate tombs from people:

At the tomb KV 50 in the Valley of Kings, a mummified dog and baboon were discovered buried together, though the owner is unknown.[10]

Source: en.wikipedia.org...

Religious Ancient Egyptian Cults:

Over time, religious cults emerged for the worship of each specific god. Two main types of worship distinguished the cults—the first choosing to worship the god through mass mummified animal offerings and the second selecting a totem animal to represent the god,[4] which was mummified at the time of its death.

en.wikipedia.org...

Religious Offerings:

Before animal mummification became common, these offerings were usually bronze statues depicting the animals.[9] However, eventually a cheaper alternative to bronze statues—animal mummies—became the most popular form of offering. Literally millions of these mummified animals have been discovered throughout Egypt. Inspection of these mummies, usually done through CT scans which allow researchers to examine the skeletons of the mummies without damaging the outer wrappings, has suggested that these types of animals were bred for the sole purpose of offerings.

en.wikipedia.org...

Nineteen Tons of cat mummies shipped as fertilizer:

Cats were mummified as religious offerings in enormous quantities and were believed to represent the war goddess Bastet. This cult was primarily centered at Thebes and Beni Hasan beginning in the Ptolemaic Period. At Beni Hasan, there were so many cat mummies that at the end of the 19th century, a total of 19 tons of mummified Egyptian cats were shipped to England to be used as fertilize

Also from:en.wikipedia.org...

So, there you go... possible millions of cats mummies found, but used for gardens...

Originally posted by baddmove
reply to post by Versa

 

O.K. makes sense to me...but...

Over 8 million of them...

the numbers are staggering ...

like another poster said...

must have been 100's of puppy farms going all over Egypt....

Well yes.... but then I guess there are 100's of 'puppy farms' within 100 miles of me right now....