THE SECRETS OF ANCIENT EGYPT’S SACRED, MUMMIFIED BABOONS
RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL BELIEFS LIKELY INSPIRED THE MUMMIFICATION OF THESE MONKEYS.
DATING BACK to the Ptolemaic dynasty of ancient Egypt, the ornate tombs at Tuna el-Gebel o er a curious glimpse into ancient Egyptian beliefs. In one chamber in the massive necropolis, square windows framed with lavish script open into vaults holding mummi ed remains — but not from any human.
Instead, the treated cadavers of long-dead baboons, animals once thought to have a rare connection with Egyptian deities, sit up in the niches. Stone steps lie underneath the windows, and large conelike pillars framing the stairs are attened o at the top for o erings.
While these tombs were built late in ancient Egypt’s long history, a period that represented huge changes in governance and society, Egyptians had been
upholding baboons as sacred since the beginnings of complex civilization in the Nile Valley. e reasons were deeply rooted in ancient Egyptian culture.
THE SACRED baboon was a recurring theme in ancient Egyptian art and religion. ese depictions ranged from predynastic statues to wall paintings, amulets, and statues — a tradition spanning 3,000 years. In these renditions, the baboons sometimes are shown wearing a circular lunar disk atop their heads.
“Baboons are regularly associated with the moon,” says Nathaniel Dominy, an anthropologist at Dartmouth College who has studied baboons in ancient Egypt. In other works, they are shown facing the sun with raised arms. “It’s known as the posture of adoration,” he adds.
Some researchers think Egyptians believed the baboons had a special way to communicate with the sun god, Ra, and the moon god, oth — possibly inferred a er observing the way baboons were
able to communicate with each other.
“ e baboon vocalizations were much more humanlike than anything from other animals,” says Dominy.
“ ey would have resonated with [Egyptians] extremely strongly.”
BABOONS ALSO will sometimes chatter at the moon, or at the sun at dawn. Dominy says some Egyptologists speculate that this is another possible reason baboons were o en depicted alongside the moon or sun.
In almost all cases, artistic and sacred depictions show what appears to be the Papio hamadryas baboon species, large monkeys with a doglike muzzle. But interestingly, physical remains discovered in burials or mummi cations are a mixture, with both P. hamadryas baboons and olive baboons ( Papio anubis) represented.
Regardless of species, the mummi ed baboons tend to be displayed similarly to the way the animals are depicted in artwork and artifacts: with the cadavers usually placed in a sitting position, the monkey’s tail wrapped to the right.
MANY OTHER cultures in sub-Saharan Africa didn’t always take a favorable view of baboons, due to their penchant for crop raiding.
“Baboons have this reputation for just being malicious [in sub-Saharan Africa],” Dominy says.
is makes it all the more curious that the Egyptians did hold them in high esteem — at least symbolically. It’s unclear why, but Dominy speculates that the Egyptians took a di erent view of the primates due to the ancient pastoral ancestry of many of the people who eventually settled in the Nile Valley. While baboons may raid the crops of sedentary farmers, they typically don’t cause problems among seminomadic pastoralists, who keep goats and cattle for sustenance.
Some of these pastoralists eventually settled in oases along the Nile River, but these areas were outside the natural ranges of olive or hamadryas baboons. “[ e predynastic Egyptians] were never farmers at a time when they were coexisting with baboons,” Dominy says.
THE BURIAL of baboons in tombs dates back to the predynastic period. As early as 3500 B.C.E., baboons were mummi ed and buried in the sand. Researchers have since discovered these remains, well preserved due to the region’s dry conditions.
It wasn’t just a few specimens, either. It appears that many of the animals were imported to an area just south of Luxor, known as Hierakonpolis. ese remains were found alongside those of cats, elephants, and other exotic animals.
While they likely held a sacred function for ancient Egyptians, that doesn’t mean that baboons were literally worshipped: In fact, some of the evidence from buried baboons revealed they had sustained numerous injuries on their forearms — right about where they would be struck while protecting their heads or bodies from physical attacks. In a study published in PLOS ONE in 2023, researchers revealed that the captive conditions for many of the animals were less than comfortable.
Some of the evidence from buried baboons revealed they had sustained numerous injuries on their forearms.
Of the remains of at least 36 baboons the researchers examined, only four looked healthy, with all others showing deformities. “ ey o en had bent limbs, typical of rickets caused by a lack of vitamin D due to insuf cient sunlight,” said Wim Van Neer, one of the study’s authors and an archaeozoologist from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, in a press release.
Some baboons were kept by royal families or other prestigious members of society. But others were likely kept for pro t by priests, Dominy says. Once they died, their cadavers would have been sold to people looking to mummify the primates to present them as o erings to the gods, similar to cats, and other animals.
e practice was put to an end at the close of the Ptolemaic dynasty, when Christians began destroying pagan symbols. Ultimately, North Saqqara, where many remains have been found, was destroyed by the late 8th century C.E., putting the nal nail in the proverbial co n.