Surprise in Egypt: They find 10 crocodiles bound to starve in an ancient tomb

located in front the Egyptian city of Aswan, the necropolis of Qubbet el-Hawaii it hides a hundred tombs carved into the rock of the hill. One of them with ten crocodile mummies, an “archaeological surprise” because in this area of ​​the west bank of the Nile its inhabitants did not venerate Sobek, the “crocodile god”.

the remains of five skulls and five partial skeletons of crocodiles, which measured between 1.8 and 3.5 meters, were found in a small tomb in the necropolis. Plos One magazine publishes today its description, in an article signed by researchers at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences and the University of Jaén.

Qubbet el-Hawa is located about 1,000 kilometers south of Cairo and is a necropolis where the governors of Egypt’s southern border were buried, between 2200 and 1800 BC The necropolis has been excavated by several teams of archaeologists for 150 years.

Since 2008, the project of the University of Jaén, with the professor of Egyptology, Alejandro Jimenez-Serrano opposite he discovered and excavated 25 graves, from large burial complexes to small graves, like this one found in 2019 with the remains exclusively of ten crocodiles.

“Is the first time throughout the necropolis that these mummified animals have been found”, Jiménez-Serrano told EFE news agency, adding that the discovery “is a real surprise”, because in Aswan, as far as is known, the god Sobek was not worshippedgod of water and fertility, often depicted with a crocodile head.

In ancient Egyptian tombs it is common to find animals, either as offerings to the deceased – for example, birds or any part of a bovine animal or as offerings to deities. In the first millennium BC, the practice began of giving mummified animals to certain gods in order to get close to them and gain their favor.

Here’s what the researchers think behind this new discovery. The people who made this offering sought the favor of the deity and so are the crocodiles “the intermediaries” between the human being and the godexplains the project manager.

The remains were found in 2019 and were not examined in a field laboratory until the end of 2022. The style of conservation of the mummies is different from that found at other sites, mainly because no trace of resin or evisceration -extraction of the abdominal viscera- from the corpse as part of the mummification process.

The style of preservation suggests an antiquity before Ptolemaic eraconsistent with the final phase of Qubbet el-Hawa’s burial use during the 5th century BC

None of the specimens were wrapped in bandages, material that was eaten by termitesalthough there have been some remains indicating that they were once, or covered by vegetable mats.

The animals were found in the top of a graveon a layer of sand that covered four burials – two men and two women – laid 1700 years earlier.

The inhabitants of Aswan chose Qubbet el-Hawa to bury the crocodiles because the necropolis was already considered sacred and was closer to the divine sphere.

Based on their morphology, the researchers identified two species; West African Crocodiles and Nile Crocodiles One of the most important things about the discovery, Jiménez-Serrano summarizes, is that they believe “they starved them”.

Some crocodiles, he explains, have a notch on one of their hind legs, indicating that they are he was tied up Others had stones in the stomach

Researchers believe that once he died they buried them in the sand to dry them and then they were wrapped in cloths, bandages or mats and transferred to the tomb of Qubbet el-Hawa. It is a simpler and more accessible mummification, but the important thing is that they serve as transmitters of human desires in front of the divinity, underlines the researcher from the University of Jaén.

“More than 20 burial sites with crocodile mummies are known in Egypt, but they have been found 10 well preserved mummies together in one intact tomb is extraordinary“, summarizes Belgian researcher Bea De Cupere in a statement from the university, according to the EFE news agency.