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From Thebes, Egypt Roman Period, after 30 BC
Length: 33.000 cm
EA 6743
On loan to
Animal Mummies
Mummy of a dog
The Egyptians kept dogs as pets and also used them for hunting. This mummy is either of a pet dog or of a wild jackal. He has been wrapped up tightly with a clay model of his head sticking out. Inside the wrapping, his bones are all jumbled together. Animal mummies often looked much better on the outside than on the inside. The embalmers who made and sold them knew that people couldn't see the inside, so they didn't waste time keeping the bones in the right places.
The dog was the special animal of the god Anubis, so this dog might have been left as a present to Anubis in one of his temples. Anubis was the god who guided a dead person through the tests of the afterlife.