Archaeological research suggests ancient Egyptians kept pets, buried them in pet cemeteries

Recent work on an animal cemetery in the ancient Red Sea port of Berenice appears to question the notion that pet-keeping is exclusively a modern phenomenon.

The latest edition of the Antiquity Journal carries an article reporting on the findings in Berenice where a series of small animal burial have been under excavation for the past five years.

The results of excavations in Berenice, located south of the present day Red Sea resort town of Marsa Alam, have revealed a trove of new information attesting to how Egyptians of antiquity treated their domesticated animals.

Dating back to Ptolemaic and Roman times, these archaeological discoveries indicate the presence of nearly 100 complete animal skeletons in the burial plot. The pet cemetery at Berenice was in use primarily between the last quarter of the first century AD, and the first half of the second century AD. Berenice was originally established during the reign of Ptolemy II (circa 285 BC - 246 BC) as a military post, and port through which the maritime shipment of African elephants took place.

Author of the article Marta Osypińska, from the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology at the Polish Academy of Sciences, reports that skeletal remains of cats, dogs and monkeys were found in Berenice’s cemetery. So far 86 complete cat skeletons have been found, along with a number of other feline bones found in “disturbed burials.”

According to Osypińska, most of the felines found buried in the cemetery are domesticated cats from northeast Africa. Dog remains were the next most common type found — nine skeletons were unearthed — followed by monkeys.

Ancient Egyptians revered and worshiped the cat goddess known as Bastet, from as early as 2900 BC. In the first centuries AD, cat mummies were produced on an almost industrial scale and a large market existed for them as sacred offerings.

Like the cat-goddess Bastet, there are several other animal forms which were deified in ancient Egypt including Hathor, who is depicted as a cow-headed goddess of fertility, along with the jackal-headed Anubis who was the deity associated with mummification and the afterlife.

However, the cats in the Berenice cemetery have not been mummified. Osypińska reports that this “suggests a unique example of pet-keeping rather than the religious or magical deposits found in the Nile Valley.”

This conclusion is based on the nature of the burials, the fact the animals were not mummified, that there were different kinds of animals found and the absence of human remains. There is also no evidence the animals were intentionally killed, which is common in mummified animals found at sites in the Nile Valley. As such, she suggests that the finds are remains of a “cemetery of house pets.”

Salima Ikram, Egyptology unit head at the American University in Cairo (AUC,) told Mada Masr that, “animals were regarded in a myriad of ways by the ancient Egyptians” between approximately 3,500 BC - 30 BC. They were regarded “as food, as a source of raw materials such as leather, ivory, feathers, as inspiration for religion, as manifestations of gods, as offerings to gods, as helpful animals such as draft cattle, herd dogs and as pets.”

Ikram’s research focuses on dog burials, and suggests that dogs were often buried with their owners suggesting that strong emotional bonds existed between humans and dogs.

In 2015, the National Geographic reported on a different kind of find. Excavations at Hierakonpolis, situated just north of the town of Edfu and under investigation their first excavation in 1979, revealed important evidence of animal abuse in ancient Egypt. In a plot of earth for the burial of animals, which dates back to around 5,000 years ago, the skeletal remains of exotic animals reveal injuries from restraints, abuse and beatings.