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From Egypt Ptolemaic Period, 332-30 BC
Mummy of an ibis
Length: 16.500 cm
EA 36154
Ancient Egypt and Sudan
Animal Mummies
Relic-box
Smaller mummified animals and birds were sometimes placed inside bronze boxes, on top of which a figure of the creature was often put. This box was made to contain the mummy of a falcon.
To start with, only a few animals were mummified, those which were considered to have special links with their god or goddess, but by the Late Period the use of animal mummies had got rather out of hand, and any animal was considered special. Huge underground rooms were found at Saqqara containing four million mummified ibis birds like the one in the picture underneath, each in a pottery container.