Ancient Egyptians revered cats and other animals and took as much care in preparing them for their passage to the next life as they did with humans, scientists said on Wednesday. A study of animal mummies from tombs dating back thousands of years showed the ingredients the Egyptians used to preserve them were the same as those used for humans. "The sorts of compounds we were finding indicate they were embalming them in the much same way, with some exotic ingredients," said Richard Evershed, an expert in archaeological chemistry at the University of Bristol in southwest England. Millions of mummified animals, birds and reptiles have been found in ancient Egyptian tombs, which has led scientists to assume that little care or expense was involved. It was thought they were simply wrapped in coarse linen bandages and dipped in preservatives. But Evershed and his team, who studied the mummies of a cat, two hawks and an ibis dating from 818-715 BC and 380-343 BC, found traces of beeswax, tree resin, petroleum bitumen, Pistacia and possibly cedar resins and vegetable oil. "The main aim of the study was to see if animals were mummified using the same sort of embalming agents as humans, and so contributing to the debate on whether they were treated with the same sort of reverence," Evershed told Reuters.
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