by Karina Guzzi
Daily Lobo
Inw-Mnw, a mummified dog, followed his master into eternity, as Egyptians made sure they had everything for the afterlife.
"They didn't want anything to pass them by," said Salima Ikram, professor at the University of Cairo and director of the Animal Mummies Project.
In her sold-out talk about mummified animals at the Hibben Center, she described how animals were part of life in ancient Egypt.
"There were four kinds of animal mummies that show how Egyptians felt about animals," Ikram said.
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The first kind of mummified animals were pets. In one coffin, Inw-Mnw, a white dog with black spots, was found mummified at the feet of his mummified master. His picture was painted in the tomb where his name was also inscribed, Ikram said.
She showed slides of a mummified dog that still had its eyelashes and fur. Dogs, cats, baboons, horses and gazelles, sometimes with their own little sarcophagi, were among the pets found.
Ancient Egyptians also mummified food. In one tomb, 48 boxes of mummified meat were found next to a human mummy. Ikram said they also found mummified spare ribs and ox soup.
"They were all prepared as it would be at Safeway," Ikram said. Votive mummified animals were offered in the same way that people light up candles in today's churches. The difference is that votive candles only last a few hours, while mummified animals last for eternity, Ikram said.
Sacred animals were also mummified. Ancient Egypt's gods were associated with animals, and their essence sometimes lived in sacred animals.
"The spirit of the god would enter the animal's essence," Ikram said. "And the animal would be god incarnate."
Much like the Dali Lama, as the animal dies, the god's spirit would move to another animal, Ikram said.
She said the mummifying process was not only a way of protecting the body, but it also created a protective barrier for the animals' spirits. Part of the embalming process included prayers and incense.
Ikram also studied the mummifying process by embalming four rabbits she bought at a butcher shop. Three of the rabbits, Flopsy, Mopsy and Thumper, mummified five years ago, are still at her office. She didn't embalm Peter, her control rabbit, and he blew up from the belly as he decomposed and gases accumulated.
Sometimes only a part of the animal was found inside the wrappings. Some had no heads. Some had only one bone inside. Ikram said Egyptians believed their magic would make it whole.
"If you say it, it becomes true," Ikram said. "If you say it's a hawk, and if you say the magic words with it, it becomes it."
Mae Araujo, the organizer of the event, said she tries to bring lecturers to the University that speak about things of interest for New Mexicans. In November, she will bring Richard Wilkinson from the University of Arizona to speak about Egyptian magic.
"We are a society into healing and magic," Araujo said.
Ikram said she decided to launch a study on animal mummies because the last study published on the subject is from 1905. She studied the mummies by visual observation and X-rays. There is a catalog of animal mummies in the Museum of Cairo.
The lecture was followed by traditional Egyptian music and belly dancing and a raffle of Egyptology books.
