Scientists Make Shocking Discovery in Mummified Ancient Crocodiles

Egyptologists use many cutting-edge archeological methods, and recently, they proved just how amazing these technologies are by scanning the contents of a mummified crocodile belly.

Scientists from the University of Manchester used a 7-foot-long crocodile known as 2005.335, which is preserved in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. The crocodile was believed to be three thousand years old. Scientists in the modern era can study the organs because, in ancient Egyptian practice, the animals offered up to the crocodile god Sobek kept their internal organs intact.

Sobek progressed from a minor local deity to a god of creation as Sobek-Re and a divinity of kingship as Sobek-Horus.

The study team used non-invasive procedures, such as X-rays and CT scans, to document the contents of the crocodile’s stomach in order to conserve the specimen for future exhibition. Scientists discovered gastroliths, which are little stones that crocodiles often consume to help with digestion. There were even whole fish attached to a metal hook amid these pebbles. The evidence suggests that ancient Egyptians trapped the crocodile deliberately to sacrifice it to Sobek.

Crocodilian 2005.335 is only one of many ancient Egyptian antiquities studied using 3D radiography. Archaeologist Lidija McKnight of the University of Manchester claims that this method preserves the object without causing any harm to it. For use in museum exhibits in the future, the group also recovered the specimen’s bronze hook that had been stuck in its stomach.

Making a mold out of solidified clay and casting the hook from molten metal over a charcoal fire were probably both techniques used by the ancient Egyptians. There may be a thousand years between the making of the original fish hook and its contemporary analog, but the casting procedure is essentially the same. The ancient civilization that lived along the Nile, where crocodiles were revered as a sacred species, probably cultivated these reptiles with the intention of using them as sacrifices, according to archaeologists.

Hundreds of mummified crocodiles, including several crocodile babies, have been discovered in the Egyptian village of Fayoum, 62 miles southwest of Cairo.