Catacomb of up to 8 million dog mummies (and a sea monster?) discovered in ancient Egyptian city

This is a wild discovery in Saqqara, in the catacombs of Anubis, the ancient Egyptian god of the dead depicted with the body of a man and head of a dog.

Archaeologists have unearthed a mass grave next to an ancient temple in Egypt that once contained nearly eight million mummified dogs and puppies.

Ancient Egyptians built the temple and catacomb in honour of Anubis, the jackal-headed God of death, in Saqqara, a burial ground in the country's ancient capital of Memphis.

www.hindustantimes.com...

To estimate how many there are, the team took a sample and extrapolated from there how many likely filled up the catacomb. One reason the number is so high is because many of the animals were very small; while there some were mature and likely had full lives, Nicholson speculated that some were “being especially bred for the cult.”

The catacombs are believed to date from between roughly 750 to 30 B.C., up to the time Egypt’s society was interacting more and more with those of Europe, including ancient Greece and Rome.

wtnh.com... ford-hospital-two-people-stanley-moore-ramon-villanueva-miria/

Here's the real interesting part:

The catacomb ceiling also contained the fossil of an ancient sea monster, a marine vertebrate that is more than 48 million years old.

"The ancient [Egyptian] quarry men may have been aware of it, or they may have gone straight through it, it's hard to know," said Nicholson, who is researching the fossil with his colleagues.

Ancient sea monster ? Interesting

a reply to: Wide-Eyes

My thoughts exactly...

I like how they just casually mentioned that part.. not that 8 million animal mummies isn't interesting in its own right...

a reply to: WASTYT

Yes it is but that part caught my attention due to all the dragon/dinosaur talk recently.

The sea monster had more of my attention.. not ancient fossilized sea creature but monster.. hope more detailed information will be available soon..

Here are some more pics from another site:


The head and neck of an adult dog from the catacomb. (Photo credit: P.T. Nicholson)


The remains of a wooden coffin in the catacomb that still has parts of the mummy within it. (Photo credit: P.T. Nicholson)


The ancient remains of a complete canine mummy in an undisturbed section of the catacomb. (Photo credit: P.T. Nicholson)

www.livescience.com...

They also mention the "sea monster" and reference this 480 million year old anomalocaridid. Although the fossil in question is supposedly 48 million years old, so clearly a different creature..

www.livescience.com...

To add, re: the fossil:

The catacombs were likely built in the fourth century B.C., and were made out of stone from the Lower Eocene (about 56 million to 48 million years ago). So, it was a nice surprise when researchers discovered a fossil in the catacomb's ceiling. The fossil belonged to a long-extinct marine vertebrate, likely a relative of modern-day manatees and dugongs, Nicholson said.

Nice find, but it's not unusual to find millions of mummified animals in Egyptian graves, i remember some with birds( Ibis ), lizards and horses/camels.

The fossil is a nice bonus.

a reply to: WASTYT

My guess is that the "sea monster" tag was used to sell the article. I'm pretty sure it is just a fossil of a seagoing dinosaur of some type. Not that there is any real difference. If anyone say a plesiosaur today, it would be called a sea monster.

On the other hand, maybe it is a fossilized kracken

originally posted by: Halfswede
a reply to: WASTYT

My guess is that the "sea monster" tag was used to sell the article. I'm pretty sure it is just a fossil of a seagoing dinosaur of some type. Not that there is any real difference. If anyone say a plesiosaur today, it would be called a sea monster.

On the other hand, maybe it is a fossilized kracken

Three posts above yours

The fossil belonged to a long-extinct marine vertebrate, likely a relative of modern-day manatees and dugongs, Nicholson said.

a reply to: WASTYT

Hopefully they will find that people were buying fake mummies and so many will be empty the horror of stupidity of man...killing all of these creatures for what!

Over 800 animal mummies of various species, such as birds, cats and crocodiles, underwent X-rays and CT scans. One-third of them were boneless or empty, another third had partial remains, and the remaining third contained well-preserved and completely attached skeletons of the animal.

According to Dr. Lidija McKnight, an Egyptologist at the University of Manchester, “We always knew that not all animal mummies contained what we expected them to contain, but we found around a third don’t contain any animal material at all – so no skeletal remains.”

www.dailytimesgazette.com...

During the Egyptian period, animals were treated as holy so most of them were mummified as religious offerings to the Gods. Experts estimate that about 70 million animals were turned to mummies due to high demand, but still embalmers wouldn’t produce the needed amount because the number of animals is also declining, so they resorted to making empty mummies using a bit of

You know. It's posts like this that make me wonder....Animal Sacrifice to the creature in the blue lagoon? Anyone? XD