The crocodile remains were a surprise find (Photo: Ana Cecilia Gonzalez)Scan reveals surprise content of museum’s crocodile mummy
The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek museum made an exciting find this week.
The museum, in conjunction with the Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Copenhagen, scanned two 2,000-year-old crocodile mummies in its collection for the first time and found to its surprise that one contained the remains of an actual crocodile.
Egyptologist Tine Bagh explained that the ancient Egyptians made many crocodile mummies but they were often filled only with hay. She described the discovery of the mummified remains of a 20-cm long baby crocodile as ‘exciting’.
The croc was most likely killed and embalmed as a sacrifice to the crocodile god Sobek. The mummy casings are about half a metre long with protruding eyes, and will be on display in the museum during the upcoming school holidays.
The mummies are more than 2,000 years old (Photo: Ana Cecilia Gonzalez)
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