The ancient Egyptians honored the “dangerous and fearful” Nile crocodiles as one of the gods, reaching the point of embalming them and stuffing their bodies with papyrus.
Experts believe that the ritual placated the god Sobek associated with the Nile crocodiles (depicted as either a crocodile or a man with a crocodile head) but also helped reveal incredible details about daily life in ancient Egypt.
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The crocodile was a powerful symbol of the ancient Egyptian religion, and scientists are now able to get a fairly good idea of the role that crocodiles have played in Egypt’s history, thanks in part to unexpected discoveries made more than 100 years ago.
In the late nineteenth century, Western archaeologists were exploring the ancient city of Umm al-Barijat, modern Tell Umm al-Baragat (in the Fayoum governorate), and they were more interested in studying human mummies. But an expedition in 1899, led by Arthur Hunt and Bernard Greenville, funded by a UCSD donor Phoebe A. Hearst, found hundreds of mummified crocodile remains in Umm Albrigat.
Rather than rejoicing at the unexpected discovery, the expedition was disappointed with its findings at the time.
Rita Lucarelli, a professor of Egyptology at the University of California, Berkeley, noted that the team was very disappointed to find mummified crocodiles instead of human mummies, but when they found papyrus stuffed inside mummies with text written on it by the Egyptians thousands of years ago, they became interested. What they found. Instead of collecting the mummified animals, they began to open them, remove the papyrus and get rid of the crocodiles.
Now, more than 100 years later, 19 mummified crocodiles are part of the Egyptian collection at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. These mummies, along with a collection of papyri kept by the Umm Al-Barijat Papyrus Center in the Bancroft Library, give clues about how the ancient Egyptians lived daily and to what extent they exaggerated the satisfaction of crocodiles, in the hope that their dedication to them would be reversed with some goodwill towards them.
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The museum houses more than 17,000 artifacts from all over Egypt, including 19 mummified crocodiles and parts of other mummies.
Egyptologists at the University of California at Berkeley have now indicated that the mission found a “gold mine” of information about the common ancient Egyptians.
According to Professor Lucarelli, the crocodiles lurking along the banks of the Nile were a constant threat to the inhabitants of Egypt, “The crocodile was a very powerful animal. It could live on land and in the water. It could attack very quickly. It had a lot of physical strength, the male crocodiles are really huge. And it can be up to six meters long. “
Because of their status, crocodiles were often offered as sacrifices to the gods of the Egyptians. One deity in particular emerged from the crowd, Sobek, the ancient god of crocodiles who was believed to control the seasonal floods of the Nile.
The ancient Egyptians relied on the flood of the Nile to feed their fields and crops. The cult of Sobek was very important in Umm Al-Barijat, as a temple was built in the city center.
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Professor Lucarelli said: “Thus, because it was dangerous and frightening, there was, I think, a need to see gods and appease them. So, by having a temple to the crocodile god, offering sacrifices was a way to respect the aggressive character of these animals and, in theory, to use this power For charity towards humanity. “
“The crocodiles used to breed a lot, so they also became a symbol of fertility,” she added.
Egyptian priests embalmed these monsters, carefully wrapping them in the same linen rolls used for humans.
To preserve their shape at death, the crocodiles were stuffed with previously written papyrus waste.
These papyri, according to Andrew Hogan of the Umm Al-Barijat Papyrus Center at the Bancroft Library in Berkeley, reveal amazing details about the people of Egypt.
Some of these texts include literary works as well as everyday documents, such as letters, wills, petitions, and contracts. According to the expert, this helps to reach “the vast majority of the living experience of most people in the ancient world.”
Source: Express
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