14 DAY TRIAL // A paper published earlier this month in the journal Antiquity details the discovery of nearly 8 million mummified dogs and puppies in a millennia-old catacomb unearthed by archaeologists in Egypt.
The catacomb, estimated to have been dug sometime in the 4th century BC, sits close to a temple built in honor of the god Anubis. In turn, this temple is part and parcel of Saqqara, a vast burial ground that was once the necropolis of the Ancient Egypt capital, Memphis.
In their report in the journal Antiquity, researcher Paul Nicholson of Cardiff University in the UK and fellow archaeologists describe the ancient Egyptian catacomb as a collection of dark tunnels.
To get a better idea of its inner geography, have a look at the map included in the gallery below. The view combines a sketch put together by a French archaeologist by the name of Jacques de Morgan back in 1897 and information produced by a more recent survey of the tunnels.
What were all those mummified animals doing in the catacomb?
In Ancient Egypt, Anubis was the god of death. Drawings show this deity as having a human body and the head of a jackal. Hence, researchers say that the mummified dogs and puppies found in the catacomb were placed there in his honor.
More so given the fact that, as mentioned, the catacomb was discovered in the proximity of a temple dedicated to his deity.
Of the puppies found in this underground cemetery, many were just days old when they died. The animals show no signs of injury or trauma and so archaeologists suspect that they were simply left to starve to death before being mummified.
Judging by their number, researchers suspect that a mummy-making industry once thrived in the area, with dogs being bred to be sacrificed.
“It would have been a busy place,” Cardiff University archaeologist Paul Nicholson explained in an interview, as cited by Live Science. “A permanent community of people living there supported by the animal cults,” he went on to say.
It wasn't just dogs that were discovered in the ancient catacomb
Apart from grown-up dogs and puppies, archaeologists exploring the underground cemetery also found the mummified remains of other animals such as hawks, baboons, bulls. This indicates that Anubis was not the only animal god worshiped in Ancient Egypt.
Interestingly, the 48-million-year-old fossilized remains of a sea monster of sorts were also discovered in the catacomb, embedded in its ceiling.
For the time being, researchers have no idea whether the workers who built the catacomb were aware of the existence of these remains of if maybe they simply dug the underground cemetery right underneath them without ever realizing that they were there.
