Pharaonic antiquities: “secrets” revealed by “rare” mummies of Egyptian crocodiles

In the Middle Kingdom, the cult of crocodiles spread in Egypt, when the country was in a period of great prosperity.

The middle state consists of the eleventh to the thirteenth dynasties, as Egypt was a country that had influence in areas from the Syrian coast in the north to Nubia in the south.

But Egypt entered, after the Thirteenth Dynasty, in a huge bump, and it was a prelude to the Hyksos’ occupation of the country for many decades, which was only broken by the hands of King Saqnan Ra and his two sons Kamose and Ahmose, where Ahmose completed the task of expelling the Hyksos from the country after killing his father and brother.

However, the worship of the “crocodile god” did not disappear, despite the era of decay that prevailed in the country, as it existed even after the end of the dynastic era.

A team from the Spanish University of Khayan has worked in the Qubbat al-Hawa area since 2008 in rock tombs, and in 2019 the team uncovered 10 crocodiles in good condition of mummification on the west bank of the Nile.

Alejandro Jimenez, a professor of Egyptology at the University of Jaen in Spain and director of the excavation project in Qubbat al-Hawa, told the BBC that although the linen wraps that were around these crocodiles have disappeared, the condition of the crocodiles is good, which is rare in this region.

Jimenez added that this gave scientists the opportunity to study crocodiles from this era intensively after we found them in good condition. Studies were carried out in museums on the remains of crocodiles, but in our case we studied them in the cemetery.

Why crocodile؟

The ancient Egyptian used to sanctify animals, especially those that he could not tame and humiliate for his work, whether domestic or external, so he used to sanctify them and put them in the ranks of gods, according to scholars.

And the “crocodile god” or what the ancient Egyptians called “Sobek”, is an ancient Egyptian deity associated with the Nile, and it is depicted in the form of a human being with a crocodile’s head, or in the form of a crocodile directly, and it symbolizes in the ancient Egyptian religion power and fertility, and was associated in particular with dangers. Which is represented by the Nile with its flood.

However, indications from some sources confirm that the nicknames that were given to “Sobek” represented the violent and huge nature of the crocodile, and it was called “the one who eats while having sex,” according to the Italian Egyptologist “Ida Bresciani.”

So the god “Sobek” is the god of fertility among the ancient Egyptians.

Alejandro says that some of the crocodiles found in the Qubbet al-Hawa area reach a length of three meters, which raises questions about how to catch and deal with these huge animals.

Alejandro estimated that they left these animals in the sun for a long time, and they dehydrated and died before the mummification process, where we found them.

The report, published by the scientific journal “Plus One”, indicates that the discovered crocodiles were covered with a layer of tar, which was common in the last periods of ancient history.

The magazine says that the roof of all the skulls of the Dome of Hawa crocodiles is intact, and there are no traces that can be associated with killing the animals.

She stressed that among the various methods mentioned for killing crocodiles, those that do not leave clear traces.

The director of the excavation project in Qubbet al-Hawa says that the vital organs of crocodiles were present in the mummies remarkably, and that the stomach was not removed as was usual when embalming, and it is likely that these crocodiles were buried in the sand and after a period they were covered with tar and embalmed as they are.

And Alejandro confirms that a number of stones were found inside the stomach of crocodiles, which is a common thing used by crocodiles to balance them in the water.

He notes that he discovered two types of crocodiles, the Nile crocodile and the West African crocodile, with different lengths.

Crocodiles were descending on Egypt with the flood of the Nile, which represented a supernatural power for the ancient Egyptian, and he was greatly afraid of the river’s waste and was preparing for it.

The floods were destroying the habitats of the animals that lived on the banks of the Nile, and the rats were rushing to the higher lands, and the cobra was killing the mice, so the Egyptians honored them and placed them on the crowns of kings.

Just as the crocodile was a creature too great for a mouse to satisfy its appetite, for example, so during the Nile flood it would attack cows and perhaps people.

Therefore, the Egyptians placed him among the huge deities associated with the Nile flood.

And the Spanish scientist points out that the importance of the discovery comes from the fact that many of the studies conducted in the past years on crocodile mummies were about the remains of crocodiles that were in museums and not in cemeteries like our case, which gave us a lot of unique information.

There are many mummies of Egyptian animals, including crocodiles, in many museums around the world.

The Egyptian Museum in Cairo has the largest collection of animal mummies. However, the discovered crocodiles, according to the scientific journal report, are extremely rare in modern excavations.