All Photos by Brenna Reistad
Mummied Crocodile
Site Name
Thebes
From NMNH Exhibit Hall "Eternal Life in Ancient Egypt" label for this artifact, 2011: Mummified crocodile, 332-30 B.C. Priests took great care with these wrappings, modeling the head, nostrils and eyes in linen and covering the body in a crisscross pattern secured by linen thread. The remains inside look less impressive: a flattened crocodile, possibly a hatchling, covered with resin.
Small Bull Mummy/1
Site Name
Dashur (Dahshur)
From card: "Late Ptolemaic to Early Roman Period (200 B.C. - 200 A.D.)" See accession history for detailed info. on collection/donation of this artifact and the others in this collection.
From NMNH Exhibit Hall "Eternal Life in Ancient Egypt" label for this artifact, 2011: Bull mummy, 300 B.C.-A.D. 400. Although at least nine layers of wrappings protect this bull, the x-ray below reveals only a jumble of bones inside.
Some scholars suggest that priests or the king ate the meat to partake of the god's powers. Embalmers mummified the head, however, and held a ritual to allow the bull to see, eat, and hear forever. Divine Bull. This bull lived like a god in a special stable within the temple walls. Priests massaged his body, decorated his horns with ornaments of silver, and even sang to him. Egyptians saw him as a living manifestation of a god, and worshippers filled the temple daily to honor him.
When the bull died, Egyptians believed he went on to eternal life, and a young bull with the same distinctive markings took his place. Many temples honored other sacred animals - for example, crocodiles that embodied the god Sobek in the temple at Kom Ombo, and cats of Bastet at Bubastis. When a divine bull died, the entire region fell into mourning. Priests held an elaborate funeral and buried him in an underground niche.
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