According to a paper that will be published in the November issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science, ancient Egyptians bred raptors as offerings for the gods.

Animal mummies were an important feature of ancient Egyptian religious life, particularly from 600 BC to 250 CE.

Ancient Egyptians believed in many gods and associated different animals with them. Millions of mummies of cats, dogs, ibises, and raptors (were connected to the sun god Re) have been discovered in catacombs throughout Egypt and are found in museums all over the world today.

“The idea of birds of prey being bred to the extent of being kept is new,” said the study’s lead author Prof Salima Ikram of the American University in Cairo, Egypt.

In ancient Egypt, birds used as votive offerings were prepared by being gutted and dried, then dipped into molten resin and wrapped.

However, sometimes the birds were not gutted, giving Prof Ikram and co-authors a chance to take a glimpse into one particular bird’s life before it died.

The scientists carried out a virtual autopsy on a bird mummy, labeled SACHM 2575, from Iziko Museums of South Africa in Cape Town.

SACHM 2575 was scanned using CT (computed tomography) imaging and the researchers created three-dimensional images of the bird.

Based on morphology, limb measurements and beak shape, they established it was a male European kestrel (Falco tinnunculus).

Since the bird had not been gutted prior to mummification, the scientists could also look into its digestive tract to see what its last meal had been.

They found the tail of a young house mouse (Mus musculus), which appears to have caused the kestrel to choke to death. Looking further into the gizzard and stomach, they found other mouse fragments, including 27 loose teeth, suggesting that the kestrel had eaten more than one mouse earlier in the day. They also found parts of a small sparrow.

“When we saw how much the kestrel ate and how it choked, we suddenly had an idea about how the ancient Egyptians managed to mummify so many raptors and the implications about wild animal husbandry and the possibility of falconry being practiced in ancient Egypt,” Prof Ikram said.

“We know raptors were religiously important but it’s interesting to think about the role they may have had in falconry.”

He added: “it is also interesting that ancient Egyptians were exerting so much thought and control over nature and that their aptitude with wild animals is considerable.”

This study provides, for the first time, strong evidence for the ancient Egyptians keeping birds of prey in captivity, with the possibility that they had also established a captive breeding program for them, favoring the offering of males over females.

_____

Salima Ikram et al. 2015. Fatal force-feeding or Gluttonous Gagging? The death of Kestrel SACHM 2575. Journal of Archaeological Science, vol. 63, pp. 72 – 77; doi: 10.1016/j.jas.2015.08.015