Grim Hybrids and Mummified Scarabs: Explore 6 Strange Sets of Animal Remains

Unusual or elaborate burials are usually reserved for humans - but archeologists occasionally find painstakingly prepared (or in some cases, utterly bizarre) animal remains at a dig. Let's take a look at some examples, such as...

• The Eight-Skulled Crocodile Mummy
• The Dorset Hybrids
• An Ancient Egyptian Pet Cemetery
• The Porpoise of Guernsey
• The Mummified Scarabs of Saqqara
• The Pre-Incan Peruvian Pet Cemetery

The Eight-Skulled Crocodile Mummy

The ancient Egyptians didn't restrict mummification to the human dead - some animals found themselves preserved as votive offerings to the gods. Crocodiles were a surprisingly common subject of this procedure, since they were sacred to Sobek - the crocodile god of the Nile.

Once such mummified crocodile (dating to around 30 BCE) held quite the surprise for a team in Britain. The mummy was put into a hospital CT scanner normally reserved for human patients, allowing researchers to build an x-ray profile of the mummy's contents... which turned out to be the skulls of four crocodiles arranged in a row. A further four hatchling crocodiles were wrapped around the skulls, meaning a total of eight crocodile skulls were in the offering.

The bundle was supported with a stick in at least one of the skulls, then wrapped and decorated to make a offering worthy of Sobek!

The Dorset Hybrids

They may not have been as majestic or menacing as the chimera or manticore of mythology, but the bones of "hybrid" animals have been found in an Iron Age site at Dorset in England. The mix-and-match burials included...

• A cow with its legs swapped for those of a horse
• A sheep with a bull's head placed at its hindquarters
• A horse with a cow horn protruding from its skull - point inwards
• A dog buried with three cow jawbones radiating around it

Even humans weren't spared this strange treatment - the skeleton of a young woman was found buried face down on a crescent bed of animal bones. The animal remains were laid out to mirror her position - her skull rested upon animal skulls, while her legs rested on animal leg bones. Chillingly, the remains showed signs of a wound to the throat... suggesting that she had been the victim of ritual sacrifice.

An Ancient Egyptian Pet Cemetery

Not content with animal mummies, Egypt also has one of the earliest known pet cemeteries. The 1st century site (at Berenike on the Red Sea coast) was the resting place of almost a hundred intact animal skeletons. The majority of the interred animals were cats, but a few dog and monkey skeletons were found amongst the dead.

You might be wondering how we know it was a cemetery for pets rather than a site of ritual sacrifice. Well, the remains didn't show any signs of intentional killing, while the lack of human remains makes it unlikely the beasts were being sent off as companions for their owners in the afterlife. There's also the fact that some of the skeletons were buried with grave goods - two cats were interred with ostrich egg beads, while three cats and a monkey seem to have had collars!

The Porpoise of Guernsey

Of all the things you'd expect to find in the ruins of a medieval monastic retreat, a human-style grave containing the skeletal remains of a porpoise would be quite far down the list.

The porpoise was found just off the coast of Guernsey, an island sitting between Britain and France. Archeologists were exploring Chapelle Dom Hue, an even smaller island that can be walked to at low tide and is believed to have been a medieval hermitage or religious retreat.

It's possible that the unfortunate cetacean was trapped in a natural pool when the tide went out, which would have allowed it to be captured by the monks... then again, it could have simply washed up dead.

There's two theories behind the 15th century grave. One is that the creature was given a ceremonial burial - perhaps the monks felt a religious obligation to the creature that ended up on on their shore. The other is that the carcass was buried (possibly in salty brine) in an attempt to preserve the meat for consumption!

The Mummified Scarabs of Saqqara

Scarabs are commonly associated with mummification, but have you ever heard of a mummified scarab beetle?

In 2018, archeologists announced that they had found the entrance to a previously undiscovered Fifth-Dynasty Old-Kingdom tomb at the Saqqara Necropolis outside Cairo. They also found a decorated limestone sarcophagus, containing two linen-wrapped scarab beetle corpses in very good condition... which is pretty impressive, since the Fifth Dynasty reigned over 4,000 years ago.

A second, smaller sarcophagus contained even more examples of the mummified beetles - and while amulets carved as scarabs (such as "heart scarabs") were a frequent feature of Egyptian grave goods, actual scarabs are an incredibly rare (and potentially unique) find.

The Pre-Incan Peruvian Pet Cemetery

Egypt's not the only place with an ancient pet cemetery - Peru has its own equivalents, such as a mixed human and animal graveyard made by the pre-Incan Chiribaya.

A graveyard discovered at Ilo in 2006 contained over forty Chiribaya shepherd dogs, buried in the same ground as the Chiribaya themselves. The animals showed no signs of having been sacrificed - and their bodies are in disturbingly good condition, having become natural mummies in the hot, dry environment.

The Chribaya clearly cared a lot for their pets, as the preserved pooches were found with a plethora of grave goods. Some were buried with tubers or corn in their mouths, while others were laid to rest on a bed of fish... and yet more were comfortably wrapped in blankets!

Thanks for reading - you might also like...

• Golden Tongues and Solar Barques: The Strange Grave Goods of Egypt's Mummies
• Cliffside Coffins and a Pink False Door: Explore 5 Bizarre Ancient Burials
• Disturb These 5 Real-Life Vampire Graves at Your Peril...

Sources and Further Info:

• The crocodile with eight heads
• The boneyard of the bizarre that rewrites our Celtic past to include hybrid-animal monster myths
• Human sacrifice evidence in Iron Age bones, say Bournemouth researchers
• Pet cats at the Early Roman Red Sea port of Berenike, Egypt
• Medieval Porpoise Burial Puzzles Scientists
• Guernsey's medieval 'Porpoise grave' remains a mystery
• Ancient Egyptian tombs yield rare find of mummified scarab beetles
• Mummified Dogs Reveal Pre-Incan People Honored This Shepherd 1,000 Years Ago