Votive Mummy

The fourth, type of animal mummification in ancient Egypt was the use of mummified animals as Votives to the gods. These votive mummies were an offering of a specific mummified animal as a gift to the gods or as at type of appeasement to the gods to the deity, that would be heard throughout eternity. Often there were different grades of votive mummy available for purchase with the more expensive and high-end mummies wrapped with cartonnage masks and cheaper mummies being plainly wrapped. Additionally, it was possible to purchase coffins and sarcophagi resembling the shape of the animal; yet, the most expensive of these examples come from the Ptolemaic Period where coffins could be made of bronze. They were discovered in tombs, temples, …show more content…
Many of the animals were bred and killed once they reached a certain size and then mummified by priests and then later sold to pilgrims. Many of these animals were killed either through drowning or through breaking their necks. One example comes from the British Museum’s cat collection where many of the cats were killed at the ages of two to four months and nine to twelve months. Due to the high demand and mass operations these animals were often abused and neglected by the priests who ran the operations. According to the Archive of Hor, once example of this neglect occurred when food was stolen from ibises, resulting in their deaths by starvation and the arrests and punishment of six priests. Even with the large numbers of animals to be mummified fakes were still abundant. Through the use of radiologic images, archeologists discovered many of these mummies were either fakes or composed of only portions of the animal believed to be under the wrappings. This was due to the commercialization of mummified animals and the corruption of priests who took advantage of pilgrims by selling faux mummies. In fact, one notable Egyptian scholar, known as Hor, decreed that, “there must be one god in one vessel.” As Salima Ikram writes, “interestingly, the more elaborate the wrapping, the more likely it is to contain a fake.” Furthermore, sometimes the mummies …show more content…
There were five different practices that were utilized when mummifying the animals, whether they be pets, victual, sacred, or votive mummies. The first of these methods was Evisceration. This method was the highest quality of mummification available, using many of the same steps as used on human bodies and reserved only for sacred animals such as the Apis bull. In this method many of the organs such as the brain, lungs, stomach, intestines, and liver, were removed from the body. After the body was emptied and cleaned, natron was placed into the body cavity so as to dry out the tissue and the body packed with