Using micro CT, which is 100 times higher than a medical CT scan, scientists have managed to piece together new evidence of how animals, both domesticated and wild, lived in pre-historic times. Their research hopes to help better understand how ancient Egyptians treated animals and has been published in Scientific Reports and the journal Nature.
"Using micro CT we can effectively carry out a post-mortem on these animals, more than 2,000 years after they died in ancient Egypt", said materials scientist Richard Johnston of Swansea University.
Three differently-sized species – a cat, a snake, and a bird mummified in ancient Egypt – underwent top-notch, 3D X-ray scanning, with the research group coming to believe that while some animal mummies were someone’s beloved four-legged friends, others could have been used in human burials as food in the afterlife, or served as sacred animals in their own right.
Whatever the case, the lion's share of mummies were found to have likely been votive offerings, as the ancient people sought the favour of gods and lending additional weight to their prayers.
While some were purportedly captured wild, cited evidence suggests there were also specimens reared on "mummy farms" for further use in offerings.
As for the analysed species proper, the cat, the scans suggested, was most likely a domesticated kitten with a broken neck – a cue that it must have been bred for mummification.
However, it's uncertain what caused the creature's death – the fracture itself or something else, with the neck breaking post-mortem.
It took more effort to identify the bird, which was ultimately found to resemble a Eurasian kestrel, but there wasn't enough evidence to determine how exactly it died: the species showed no signs of strangulation or other violence.
The snake, for its part, was also found to have suffered from certain health issues: its kidneys were calcified, likely due to renal disease, frequent among modern reptiles suffering from a lack of water.
In addition, its fangs were missing. Egyptian cobras have always been deemed as venomous, so the fangs could have been removed from the dead snake to protect the embalmer.
Boasting the newly obtained insights into the secrets of animal mummification and human-animal relationships, one of the researchers behind the study brought up the effective cooperation:
"This collaboration between engineers, archaeologists, biologists, and Egyptologists shows the value of researchers from different subjects working together", commented Swansea University Egypt Centre curator Carolyn Graves-Brown speaking about the outcome of their joint effort.