Pictures: Ancient Egypt Crocodile Mummies Revealed

Mask of the Mummy
Photograph courtesy John Stafford, Stanford School of Medicine
There's a real crocodile behind that mask, according to new computed tomography (CT) scans of a 2,000-year-old Egyptian mummy (pictured). The 8-foot-long (2.4-meter-long) artifact—wrapped in once colorful linen and outfitted with a stylized mask—is one of two crocodile mummy bundles scanned this month at the Stanford School of Medicine in California.
Scans of the bundle above show a "mishmash of bony parts" from at least two Nile crocodiles, including two skulls, a shoulder bone, and possibly a femur, according to conservator Allison Lewis, a fellow at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology in Berkeley, California, where the mummies are kept.
Their origins unknown, the mummy bundles were purchased by philanthropist Phoebe Hearst in Egypt at the turn of the 20th century. The artifacts were recently restored and studied before going on display this week in the museum's new exhibition, "Conservator's Art: Preserving Egypt's Past."
Mummifying animals was a common practice among ancient Egyptians, who embalmed thousands of crocodiles and buried them in mass graves as offerings to the crocodile god Sobek, according to the museum. (See "Mummy Birds Recovered From Egypt Factory.")
—Christine Dell'Amore
Published April 30, 2010
Crocodile Ballast?
Image courtesy Stanford Medicine; mummy from Phoebe A. Hearst Museum, rendered by eHuman using Anatomage
There was little mystery shrouding the Hearst museum's other crocodile mummy bundle, pictured in a low-resolution scan, which housed an intact adult and babies. The mummy's original wrapping was already gone when it was purchased in 1899. But scientists wanted to find out what was inside the crocodile's body.
The scan revealed strange white objects (lower right). These may be rocks, which crocodiles will swallow as a type of ballast to keep them steady in the water, according to Jane Williams, an associate conservator at the museum. (Read "King Crocs" in National Geographic magazine.)<
Overall, added museum conservator Lewis, CT scans offer a "really detailed" and noninvasive look at "what's going on inside" mummies.
Published April 30, 2010
Baby Crocodile Mummies
Photograph courtesy Stanford School of Medicine
"Riding" atop the 5.5-foot-long (1.7-meter-long) unwrapped adult-crocodile mummy were more than 30 mummified babies. Riding a parent's back is a common form of locomotion for young Nile crocodiles, experts say. (See alligator and crocodile pictures.)
The babies had originally been wrapped in linen, tied to palm stems, and pressed onto the adult crocodile via the sticky "mummy balm" used by embalmers in ancient Egypt, according to the Hearst museum's conservation blog.
The balm on the crocodiles—a mixture of conifer-tree resin, beeswax, and fat—was the same as the substance used to mummify humans, "disputing the notion that animals received cheaper, more perfunctory" mummifying, according to the blog.
But the tarlike substance had degraded over time, and some of the young crocodiles had fallen off over the years. The museum's Lewis and Williams turned to a largely synthetic adhesive to reattach the babies.
(See: "Egyptian Animals Were Mummified Same Way as Humans.")
Published April 30, 2010
3-D Crocodile Mummy
Image courtesy Stanford Medicine; mummy from Phoebe A. Hearst Museum, rendered by eHuman using Anatomage
Both of the crocodile mummy bundles were scanned twice at the Stanford University lab—once with a low-resolution, clinical scanner and again with a time-consuming high-resolution scanner, which can tease out more nuanced details of a subject in 3-D.
For instance, the crocodile babies' calcium-poor—and thus less dense—skeletons (pictured, a 3-D side view of the babies atop the adult) registered only in the high-res scans, according to a Stanford School of Medicine blog.
Published April 30, 2010
Sacrificial Crocodile?
Photograph courtesy John Stafford, Stanford School of Medicine
High-resolution scans of the wrapped mummy bundle (pictured) showed that the body parts inside had been covered with papyrus stems before wrapping, which helped to reinforce the assemblage's positioning, according to Hearst-museum conservator Williams.
The ancient Egyptians prepared two types of crocodile mummies: Sacred mummies, thought to be embodiments of the crocodile god Sobek, and votive mummies, raised expressly for sacrifice, according to the museum.
Votive crocodiles lived in lakes near temples, especially in El Faiyum, Egypt (see pictures of "beautiful" human mummies found in El Faiyum). A visitor to the temple would make a donation, and priests would then sacrifice, embalm, and bury a crocodile on behalf of the benefactor.
It's unknown whether the two mummies are sacred or votive, though the disorganized placement of bodies inside the wrapped mummy suggests it's a votive animal, according to Lewis.
Published April 30, 2010
Fishhook Found in Mummy
Images courtesy Stanford Medicine; mummy from Phoebe A. Hearst Museum, rendered using eHuman Anatomage
In low-resolution scans of the unwrapped crocodile mummy (such as the lower scan pictured), many details remained hidden. But high-resolution scans (such as the one at top) captured some "exciting" new details, according to Hearst museum conservator Lewis.
For instance, in the crocodile's belly the researchers found skeletal prey remains and a fishhook, which was later shown to be consistent with ancient Egyptian fishhook technology, Lewis said.
The hook—which the crocodile possibly ingested along with its last meal—doesn't look corroded, suggesting it's probably made of bronze, associate conservator Williams added.
Published April 30, 2010
Crocodile, Head-On
Image courtesy Stanford Medicine; mummy from Phoebe A. Hearst Museum, rendered using eHuman Anatomage
Used extensively in the medical world, CT scans (pictured, a head-on view of the unwrapped crocodile mummy) are becoming a "powerful tool" for studying mummies, according to the Hearst museum's conservation blog.
For instance, CT scans of the mummy of Pharaoh Tutankhamun suggest that King Tut may have died of complications from a broken leg and was not a victim of cold-blooded murder.
Published April 30, 2010