Mitogenomic diversity in Sacred Ibis Mummies sheds light on early Egyptian practices.

Sally Wasef,Craig Millar,Leon Huynen,Richard O’Rorke,Sankar Subramanian,Salima Ikram,Barbara Holland,Alex Popinga,Eske Willerslev,David Lambert,Samia El-Marghani,Caitlin Curtis,David Caramelli

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0223964

Abstract

The ancient catacombs of Egypt harbor millions of well-preserved mummified Sacred Ibis (Threskiornis aethiopicus) dating from ~600BC. Although it is known that a very large number of these ‘votive’ mummies were sacrificed to the Egyptian God Thoth, how the ancient Egyptians obtained millions of these birds for mummification remains unresolved. Ancient Egyptian textual evidences suggest they may have been raised in dedicated large-scale farms. To investigate the most likely method used by the priests to secure birds for mummification, we report the first study of complete mitochondrial genomes of 14 Sacred Ibis mummies interred ~2500 years ago. We analysed and compared the mitogenomic diversity among Sacred Ibis mummies to that found in modern Sacred Ibis populations from throughout Africa. The ancient birds show a high level of genetic variation comparable to that identified in modern African populations, contrary to the suggestion in ancient hieroglyphics (or ancient writings) of centralized industrial scale farming of sacrificial birds. This suggests a sustained short-term taming of the wild migratory Sacred Ibis for the ritual yearly demand.

Highlights

Mummification is a hallmark of ancient Egyptian civilisation and was practised on many animal species besides humans [1]
There is a large amount of archaeological evidence for Sacred Ibis in ancient Egypt, in the burial grounds at Saqqara, Abydos, Tuna el-Gebel and Thebes [7]
The analysis of mitogenomic data from a number of ancient and modern Sacred Ibises allowed us to test theories proposed from archaeological studies about the farming system used by ancient Egyptian priests in order to maintain a sufficient number of Sacred Ibises to meet demand for cultic activities and has clarified the origin of one of Egypt’s iconic birds

Summary

Introduction

Mummification is a hallmark of ancient Egyptian civilisation and was practised on many animal species besides humans [1]. The early presence of Sacred Ibis mummies at Tuna al-Gebel were thought to have been sourced from all over Egypt as indicated by the demotic writings (ancient Egyptian type of writings) (Fig 3) which were found accompanying the mummy wrappings, papyri, or jars [19]. Seasonal taming of wild birds has been suggested [7] where votive mummies were reared (but not domesticated) by priests in natural habitats close to the temples [9, 18] This is thought to have occurred in locations such as ‘the Lake of the Pharaoh’, known later as the Lake of Abusir located between Abusir and Saqqara [9], and ‘the swamp’ near Tuna elGebel. In the Ptolemaic period it has been reported that mummies were rarely sent from across Egypt to Tuna el-Gebel, but instead, ten to fifteen local Sacred Ibis breeding sites near Tuna el-Gebel’s appeared to supply this temple [18]

Materials and methods

26 Modern samples from throughout Africa

Methods

Results

Discussion