Why Ancient Egyptian Mummified Million Birds?

A mummified bird from ancient Egyptian

(credit to pinterest)

The bird was part of worship to a god, namely Thoth. After sacrificing to God Thoth, ancient Egyptian mummified the birds and buried them in the ancient catacombs or burial grounds.

God Thoth is a god represented by human body with Ibis bird head. Thoth was god of:

- magic

- justice

- wisdom

- the moon

- writing

- mathematics and measurement

- knowledge

Interestingly, Ibis was believed as god symbols of:

- power

- identity

- attributes

Modern African sacred ibis

(credit to Science Source)

What wonder me was the number of mummified birds: millions. However, the number was collected for about 600 years, from 665 BC to 250 AD.

Million mummified are found in two areas, they are:

- 4 millions from catacombs of Tuna el Gebel

- 1.75 millions from burial of Saqqara.

Million birds were mostly collected from wild species, and small number was from reared (farmed) population.

Based on DNA study, scientists proved recently that wild birds were the most source of mummified sacred Ibis. This finding has answered the long time question: where the bird come from.

Moreover, ancient mummified birds relate to modern species, African sacred Ibis (Threskiornis aethiopicus). The birds are indigenous of Middle East and Africa.

Unfortunately, the birds had been extincted in Egypt, the last observed of bird was in 1891. The extinction was mainly due to habitat destruction and human hunting.

Luckily, African sacred Ibis is found elsewhere in Africa, and quite abundance in the sub Saharan and South Africa.