Andalucía archaeologists find 11 mummified crocodiles in Egyptian necropolis

This divine figure, as the historians from Andalucía explain, is credited with having created the Nile river from his own sweat, having the power of granting fertility, and in some popular legends of the time, having laid eggs which the world hatched from.

He is also referred to as Sebek, was the son of Set/Khnum and Neith, and is usually represented either as a crocodile or as a human with a crocodile head.

'Fertility' and 'Nile' were closely linked, since the presence of the river is what made it possible for Egyptian civilisation to survive, and even flourish, in what is otherwise a desert country, and for this reason, the god who 'made' the Nile was worshipped widely.

Offerings of mummified animals to gods were common, but not crocodiles – at least, the excavators were not expecting to find this species of Nile-dwelling reptiles.

Of the 11 remains, 10 are 'just lumps of bones', but one has been embalmed and is in good condition, according to the Spanish archaeologists.

They were found about five metres from the tomb of Shemay, a vizier, or top-ranking official serving the Pharaoh – most sources claim he lived at around the end of the eighth Dynasty, or about 4,200 years ago, whilst others link him to the 12^th Dynasty, or roughly 3,850 to 3,920 years ago.

He was married to Nebyet, had two sons – one called Idy and another whose name has never been discovered – and is buried in Coptos, near Aswan, at the Mastaba, a mud-brick mausoleum, of Kom el-Koffar.

His tomb remains that of one of the few non-Royal Ancient Egyptians discovered, offering a valuable insight into the lives of those not in power, and was found very recently – in 2017.

Picture two is of Shemay's brother Sarenput II's tomb, on the same site as the 'crocodile excavation'.

The mummified crocodile offerings to the god Sobek are thought to be much more recent than Shemay – possibly around the time of the Roman Empire – despite the earliest-known reference to the deity being at the dawn of the first Dynasty, around 5,120 years ago, and cult worship of Sobek being particularly widespread between 4,011 and 3,660 years ago, during the 12^th and 13^th Dynasties, the Jaén historians believe the offerings were made after the year 31 BC when Augustus Caesar became the first, and self-proclaimed, Emperor of Rome.

All 11 crocodiles were uncovered in the necropolis Qubbet el-Hawa, reserved for nobles and governors, very near that of Shemay.

Two polychrome coffins, badly gnawed by termites, were found next to the crocodiles, along with the burial site of a child dating from around 1550 to 1600 BC, the early part of the New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period – a time often referred to as the Egyptian Empire.

Excavation leader, Professor Alejandro Jiménez, says the task of accurately dating the reptilian offerings and interpreting their significance in the grand scheme of things will be assigned to an archaeozoologist, meaning more data may become available later, but the on-site team is fairly confident their initial theories are correct.

Photograph 1: Qubbet el-Hawa necropolis in Aswan, on the West Bank of the Nile in Upper (southern) Egypt (Wikimedia Commons/Karen Green via Schmuela on Flickr)

Photograph 2: Inside the tomb of Sarenput II, brother of vizier Shemay, near whose mud-brick mausoleum the mummified crocodiles were found (Wikimedia Commons/Daniel Csörföly)