ABOVE: Anubis, the jackal-headed god who oversaw embalming and protected travelers in ancient Egypt. Detail from a diorite statue at the Temple of Luxor, reign of Amenophis III (1403–1365 BCE). Photo by FOST/Alamy.
12 EXPEDITION Volume 60 Number 3 SACRED ANIMAL CULTS IN EGYPT
Excavating the Catacombs of Anubis at Saqqara
by salima ikram and paul nicholson
A recent excavation at saqqara, egypt, is exposing an ancient bustling economy associated with pilgrims and animal cults. Catacombs dedicated to oferings for the god Anubis have revealed huge numbers of mummifed dogs, purchased to obtain the god’s favor. Te study of these remains allows Egyptologists to interpret the impact religion had on local culture and the economy.
EXPEDITION Winter 2018 13 SACRED ANIMAL CULTS IN EGYPT
ANYONE WHO IS INTERESTED IN ANCIENT EGYPT KNOWS THAT THE EGYPTIANS MUMMIFIED MANY TYPES OF ANIMALS INCLUDING DOGS, CATS, RAMS, BIRDS, AND CROCODILES. THEY MIGHT HAVE EVEN HEARD OF SACRED ANIMAL CULTS.
these cults focused on an animal that was thought received much less lavish burial, although they played to house the soul of a god during its lifetime, and was a key role in personal piety. Tese were the votive animal revered until its death, when it was mummifed with the mummies dedicated by pilgrims at sacred sites such as soul migrating to another similarly marked creature. Te Saqqara, Bubastis, and Tuna el-Gebel (to name but a best-known example is the Apis Bull, though other gods, few), in the hope that the mummy, having been given such as the Khnum Ram of Elephantine, and the Cat of a ftting burial, would intercede with the god and bring Bastet, were also prominent. However few people realize good fortune to the donor. As shown in the book, Divine the scale of these cults and the role they played in the Creatures: Animal Mummies from Ancient Egypt, these ancient economy and in personal belief. votive mummies account for most of the millions of While there was only one Apis Bull alive at any given mummifed cats, dogs, ibises, and falcons that occupy time and his death was an occasion for national mourn- catacombs throughout Egypt. ing and royal ritual, many millions of other animals The Increasing Importance of Animal Cults Animal cults are as old as Egyptian civilization, with the Apis attested as early as the First Dynasty (ca. 3100 BCE), but it is from the 6th century BCE that they really seem to grow in scale and to become an important part of Egypt’s economy. By the 30th Dynasty, at the end of native rule in Egypt (380 BCE), the animal cults appear to take on a new signifcance. Tey can be seen as an attempt to return to traditional core values and in doing so are a way of reinforcing “Egyptianness” at a time when the country was increasingly being drawn into
TOP LEFT: Amulet of the god Anubis. Photo by the Wellcome Library, London, Wikimedia. LEFT: The mummy of a Sacred Ram (CG 29861) from Elephantine, now in the Egyptian Museum. Elephantine was one of two sites with a temple dedicated to Khnum, God of the source of the Nile, who was usually depicted with a ram’s head. Photo by Anna-Marie Kellen, in cooperation with the Egyptian Museum, Cairo.
14 EXPEDITION Volume 60 Number 3 ABOVE: The iconic Step Pyramid at Saqqara, Egypt. Many Sacred Animal catacombs are located in the surrounding area. Photo from Wikimedia.
RIGHT: A bright blue faience amulet depicting a cat surrounded by kittens, representing Bastet. PM object E3302. FAR RIGHT: A bronze figure of the Apis Bull. Between his horns is a sun-disk combined with a uraeus (cobra serpent). Photo by the Walters Art Museum, Wikimedia.
EXPEDITION Winter 2018 15 The Lake of Pharaoh Village of Abâsir