As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Thursday 22 March 2018

Mummy's boys: young ibises all wrapped up as presents for the gods



They might be disparaged as bin chickens now but in ancient Egypt they were revered

Wed 14 Mar 2018 01.30 GMTLast modified on Wed 14 Mar 2018 01.39 GMT

In Australia they’re reviled as bin chickens. But in ancient Egypt, ibises were revered and offered as gifts to the gods.

Two mummified ibises have given researchers at the University of Sydney a riveting insight into their ancient appeal.

Two ibis packages have been part of the university’s Nicholson collection since 1914. They were discovered in 1913 in Abydos, Egypt, by the British-based Egyptian Exploration Society; the university had helped pay for its excavations.

The assistant curator of the Nicholson museum, Candace Richards, said: “Part of why I think this research has such resonance and fun in Australia is that ibises are called bin chickens and everybody thinks they are this kind of dirty, scavenger animal now, but in the ancient world they were this revered, respected bird that was mummified for the gods.”

The original paper documenting the excavation described an “ibis cemetery” near the Royal Tombs. About 2,500 ibises were uncovered there. Many were preserved inside 93 clay jars.

These remains are believed to date to the Roman period, making them 2,000 years old.

In ancient Egypt, the ibis was sacred to the god Thoth, the scribe of the gods. Richards said ancient Egyptians would buy mummified ibises to offer to the gods.

Richards said there were such things as “ancient fakes”, where people would be sold mummified packets containing only parts of the bird, or no bird at all.

Research based on x-rays taken before the 1990s suggested one of the mummified packets being studied contained two ibises and the other contained only a single thigh bone.


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