The exact provenance of many of the crocodiles kept in the Musée des Confluences is unknown, but it is likely that most of them come from Esna and Kom Ombo. These proportions are an indication of the material stored in the museum that was contributed by Lortet and Gaillard and therefore do not necessarily reflect the proportions in which these animals occurred in cemeteries where they were used as votive offerings. Ten percent are complete, larger specimens (between about 50 and 350 cm total length) and the remaining 10% are heads, skulls or lower jaws. A general survey of the material at the Musée des Confluences shows that of the 300 or so crocodile mummies, about 80% are from juvenile, often fairly recently hatched specimens. The Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the Musée des Confluences in Lyon possess the largest collections of animal mummies, albeit that in many cases the exact origin of the specimens is unknown. These specimens were gathered in large numbers, especially in the late 19 th–early 20 th century. Many museums worldwide have Egyptian animal mummies in their collections and among them are often crocodiles. 110 km north of Aswan, a crocodile sanctuary is believed to have existed as shown by both textual and archaeological evidence. The latter locality is at about 50 km north of Aswan whereas Esna is at about 150 km as the crow flies. Burial sites associated with the cult of Sobek, from which abundant crocodiles were reported, are located in the Fayum (Hawara, Umm el-Baraqat (Tebtynis), Al-Lahun, …), and farther south in the es-Samun caves (al-Maabda), in Esna and Kom Ombo. Crocodiles were also sporadically found at several sites where the focus was on other species. Kessler and Ikram cite more than 20 animal cemeteries in Egypt where crocodiles were buried, although in some cases there is only literary evidence. The finds include five more or less complete, large animals as well as five skulls of also relatively large crocodiles that provide unique information, despite the fact that numerous crocodile mummies have been discovered in Egypt for centuries. In this paper, we report on an exceptional deposit of crocodiles found during the 2019 excavations in an undisturbed tomb. The area of Aswan with indication of Qubbat al-Hawā. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Ĭompeting interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.įig 1. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.ĭata Availability: All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files.įunding: The present research has been funded by Junta de Andalucía (Project P20_01008, Estudio Multidisciplinar de ataúdes y ajuares funerarios de Baja Época de Qubbet el-Hawa) and the Gerda Henkel Stiftung. Received: AugAccepted: NovemPublished: January 18, 2023Ĭopyright: © 2023 De Cupere et al. PLoS ONE 18(1):Įditor: Gonca Dardeniz Arikan, Istanbul University: Istanbul Universitesi, TURKEY The morphological and metrical features indicate that both Crocodylus niloticus and the recently resurrected species Crocodylus suchus are present among these individuals that range from 1.8 to 3.5 m in length.Ĭitation: De Cupere B, Van Neer W, Barba Colmenero V, Jiménez Serrano A (2023) Newly discovered crocodile mummies of variable quality from an undisturbed tomb at Qubbat al-Hawā (Aswan, Egypt). The preparation method suggests a pre-Ptolemaic date for the deposit. It is concluded that the manner in which these specimens were prepared, as well as the variation observed in the type of ‘final product’, are unlike any other crocodile material described so far. Moreover, the possible provenance of the crocodiles, the methods of capture and killing of the animals and their possible chronological attribution are discussed. Attention was focused on the general state of preservation of the crocodiles, the completeness of their skeletons and skulls, the presence of cut or other marks that could indicate the cause of death, and the processing of the carcasses. The absence of resin, which was apparently not used during the preparation of the mummies, and the almost complete loss of linen bandages, due to insect damage, allowed a detailed morphological and osteometric description of the remains. The material consists of five more or less complete bodies and five heads that were in varying states of preservation and completeness. A description is provided of the crocodile remains that were found during an excavation carried out in 2019 at Qubbat al-Hawā (Aswan, Egypt).
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