Massive mummified crocodiles -- at least 2,300 years old -- unearthed in tomb in Egypt

BY ASPEN PFLUGHOEFT
UPDATED JANUARY 19, 2023 9:30 PM

As researchers dug through a centuries-old trash heap, seven tombs emerged from the tan sands of Egypt, undisturbed for centuries — perhaps millennia. Removing the ceiling of one burial chamber, archaeologists came face to face with a very different kind of mummy.

Archaeologists began excavating the Qubbat al-Hawā burial site along the Nile River in Aswan, according to a study published Wednesday, Jan. 18, in the journal PLOS One. The burial site contained a number of known rock-cut tombs where dignitaries were buried. The researchers noticed a thick pile of trash from the Byzantine empire, which ruled from 330 until 1453 A.D. Beneath this trash pile, they found seven small rock tombs, simple and undecorated.

The chamber contained five “more or less complete bodies” and five crocodile heads, the study said. The find was “unlike any other crocodile material described so far.”

The largest crocodile had an estimated length of 11.5 feet, and the smallest had an estimated length of 6 feet, according to the study. Based on the type of preservation and the lack of resin and pitch, archaeologists estimated the mummies were at least 2,300 years old. The crocodiles were buried before the Ptolemaic period, which began around 330 B.C., researchers said.

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