Adventures With Animal Mummies

Adventures With Animal Mummies

AIA Society: Hawaii (Honolulu)
Lecturer: Salima Ikram

The relationship between humans and animals has always been complex with mutual dependencies that are practical, psychological, and even theological. Ancient Egyptian animal mummies are a particular manifestation of this complex web of inter-relations. This lecture presents the different types of animal mummies (food, pets, votive offerings, sacred creatures, and ‘other’) and explains how and why they were made, the theological and aesthetic decisions that went into their ‘packaging’, what each type meant to the ancient Egyptians, and how they reflect the ways in which the Egyptians interacted with the animal world, and how even today they influence our view of the ancient Egyptians and influence contemporary thought and art.

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