{"id":5653,"date":"2018-11-11T10:41:16","date_gmt":"2018-11-11T06:41:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/?p=5653"},"modified":"2018-11-11T10:41:16","modified_gmt":"2018-11-11T06:41:16","slug":"egypt-cat-mummies-discovered-in-ancient-tombs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/2018\/11\/11\/egypt-cat-mummies-discovered-in-ancient-tombs\/","title":{"rendered":"Egypt cat mummies discovered in ancient tombs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered a collection of mummified cats and scarab beetles in a series of ancient tombs.<\/p>\n

The finds, dating back more than 4,000 years, were made at Saqqara, south of Cairo. The vast burial ground served the city of Memphis – ancient Egypt’s capital for 2,000 years.<\/p>\n

Ancient Egyptians believed cats, and other animals, held a special position in the afterlife.<\/p>\n

One of the tombs held a bronze statue dedicated to a cat goddess<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Scarabs also held religious significance and could symbolise the sun god, Ra. Mostafa Waziri, of Egypt’s antiquities council, said the discovery of mummified scarabs was “something really a bit rare”.<\/p>\n

Humans were mummified to preserve their bodies for the afterlife, while animals were mummified as religious offerings.<\/p>\n

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\"Mummified<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In all, seven sarcophagi were discovered on the edge of the King Userkaf pyramid complex. Three of them held cats.<\/p>\n

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\"Mummified<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Further work at the site in Saqqara is planned. Archaeologists found the door to another tomb that remains sealed and they plan to open it in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

The newly found tombs lie in a buried ridge that has only partially been excavated. Experts say it could offer many more discoveries.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered a collection of mummified cats and scarab beetles in a series of ancient tombs. The finds, dating back more than 4,000 years, were made at Saqqara, south of Cairo. The vast burial ground served the city of Memphis – ancient Egypt’s capital for 2,000 years. Ancient Egyptians believed cats, and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5654,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5653"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5661,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5653\/revisions\/5661"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}