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The ancient Egyptians regularly mumped crocodiles in ceremonies elaborated in dedication to their god Crocodile Sobek.
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A study by one of these crocodiles reveals details on the death of the animal and the methods by which the ancient Egyptians captured these formidable predators.
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By using X and CT scanning technologies, archaeozoologists can now explore the interior of these animals, which, unlike human mummification, have their intact organs.
To discover the mysteries of the past, scientists use a wide variety of techniques to obtain the truth. Climatologists persist from two -thousand ice nuclei to see the past climatic conditions of the earth. Paleontologists analyze sediment layers to view the physical chronology of past eras. And while Egyptologists also deploy many advanced archaeological techniques, it is sometimes better to use a mummified crocodile stomach.
This is exactly what researchers at the University of Manchester have done with a 3000 -year -old crocodile corpse of 7.2 feet long, kept in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and simply known as 2005.335. Although the ancient Egyptians generally suppressed the organs during the mummification of humans, the crocodiles sacrificed to the Crocodile Sobk god have kept their intact entrails, and this small deviation of tradition allows scientists of the 21st century to analyze the organs to unravel the mysteries of this strange sacrificial ritual.
To preserve the sample for a future display, the research team has deployed non -invasive techniques, such as X -rays and computed tomography, to catalog the contents of the stomach of the crocodile. Among the ancient gastronomic detritus, scientists have found usual suspects called gastrolehes, which are small crocodile stones swallow regularly to help digestion.
However, scientists also found intact fish bait to a bronze hook. Because the delay between the last meal of the croc and his death was so short – the gastrolehes had not yet reached the stomach – the crocodile was probably intentionally captured by the ancient Egyptians to be part of a sacrificial ceremony in Sobek.
“While previous studies have favored invasive techniques such as unpacking and autopsy, 3D radiography offers the possibility of seeing inside without damaging these important and fascinating artifacts,” said Lidija McKnight, co-author of the University of Manchester in the journal, Lidija McKnight, co-author of a study published in the journal in the journal Digital applications in archeology and cultural heritagesaid in a press release.
While keeping the Crocodilian who has long been dead intact, McKnight and his team also “practically” recreated the bronze hook housed in the stomach of the museum exhibitions. McKnight says that in the ancient past, the Egyptians have probably used hardened clay to create a mold, then poured melted metal on a charcoal fire to create the hook.
“Despite the passage of several millennia between the production of the old fish hook and the modern replica, the casting process remains remarkably similar,” said McKnight in the press release.
Although 2005.335 met a macabre spell, the crocodiles were in fact venerated in the old Egyptian society for their strength but also their manifestations of sweetness (in particular with their young people) – but maybe they were Also revered. Archaeologists believe that this culture based in the Nile, in which the crocodile was the first predator (in addition to humans, of course), probably raised animals specifically for sacrificial purposes by “crocodile cults. “In the Egyptian city of Fayoum, which was Sobek’s worship center, experts discovered thousands of mummified crocodiles, Many of them babies.
But thanks to these sacrifices a long time ago, the story behind these ancient mummified crocodiles finally overturns its guts.
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