Ibis mummy inside a jar

Ibis mummy inside a jar


Period: Late Period–Ptolemaic Period

Date: ca. 400 B.C.–100 A.D.

Geography: From Egypt, Northern Upper Egypt, Abydos, Ibis Cemetery, Egypt Exploration Fund excavations, 1912–13

Medium: pottery, animal remains, linen

Dimensions: (a-b jar, mummy) H. 43 cm (16 15/16 in.); Diam. 19.5 cm (7 11/16 in.) (c-lid) H. 10.8 cm (4 1/4 in.); W. 16.5 cm (6 1/2 in.); D. 7 cm (2 3/4 in.)

Credit Line: Gift of Egypt Exploration Fund, 1913

Accession Number: 13.186.4a–c

This jar contains an ibis mummy wrapped in linen. The lid, now open, was anciently replaced over the opening and sealed with lime plaster. This mummied creature was discovered with many others, some single burials, other group burials in large jars, in a concentration east of the processional way at Abydos. Most of the mummies in this concentration seem to have dated even to the Roman Period, although others nearby in the newly recognized north cemetery temple and catalcombs belong to the Ptolemaic Period.
Animal mummies are generally envisioned as being offered to the corresponding god - for the ibis that would be Thoth. However, there are no known temples to the god Thoth at Abydos. On the other hand, Thoth ws closely involved both in the confirmation of the king and in the justification and rebirth of the deceased king, so it has been suggested that ibises may have been offered in support of divine kingship, Abydos being the seat of the most ancient kings, and, in specific, of Osiris.

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