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===Mummification and Animal Worship in Ancient Egypt===
Today, in terms of their religion, the ancient Egyptians are best known for the art of mummification and the many deities they worshipped, which were often depicted as animals with anthropomorphic features. The art of mummification can be traced back to the earliest periods of pharaonic history and was done so that the deceased’s <i>ka</i>, or spirit, could have a vessel to inhabit when it wished to come back to the world of the living. The <i>ka</i> needed a body, so the body had to be preserved. The process itself was quite intricate and is best described as part art and part science. From the time that the corpse was brought to the “House of Embalming,” until it was ready to go into its tomb, was an approximate seventy day period.<ref> Shaw, Ian and Paul Nicholson. <i>The Dictionary of Ancient Egypt.</i> (London: Harry N. Abrams, 1995), p. 191</ref> The body was first washed in a mineral called natron, which served as a preserving agent, and then the viscera, with the exception of the heart and kidneys, were removed and placed into four “canopic jars.” More natron was then applied to the outside of the body and after forty days packets of natron were placed inside the body cavity. The final step was to wrap the body in resin bandages, which gave it the typical mummy look. Once the embalmers, who were also priests, were satisfied with their work, they gave the mummy to the deceased’s family along with the canopic jars, to be placed in a tomb for eternity. <iref>Shaw and Nicholson, pgs. 190-92.</ref> The art and science of mummification clearly played a central role in Egyptian religion, but almost important was the belief in divine animals.
The concept of divine animals is not unique to ancient Egypt, but, similar to their application of the mummification process, the Egyptians made animal worship into a science. Although it may seem a bit confusing to most modern people, the ancient Egyptians actually had two philosophies regarding divine animals that were not mutually exclusive. The priestly view was that only one particular animal was viewed as divine. The best example of this is the legendary Apis Bull, which will be discussed more thoroughly below. The belief held by the majority of ancient Egyptians, though, was that <i>all</i> animals of a specific species were divine. For instance, the peasants toiling in the fields would have viewed every ibis they saw as an earthly incarnation of the ibis headed god of wisdom and writing, Thoth. <ref> Hornung, Erik. <i>Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many.</i> Translated by John Baines. (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1996), p. 137</ref> The people would have applied the same concept to other animals with a divine counterpart as well: Bastet would have been seen in all cats; Anubis in all dogs and other canines; Sobek in every crocodile, etc. For most of pharaonic history, the two concepts remained apart, but never competing, until Egypt entered into what is today known as the “Late Period” at the beginning of the First Millennium BC. During that time, Egypt was the unfortunate recipient of wave after wave of foreign invaders who made cosmetic changes to the political structure, but affected little change in its religion. With that said, the popular concept of divine animals gradually began to replace the priestly view. By the third century BC, when the Greek Ptolemaic Dynasty ruled Egypt, not only were all animals of a specific species viewed as divine, but their worship became highly organized. .<ref> Sadek, Ashraf Iskander. <i>Popular Religion in Egypt During the New Kingdom.</i> (Hildesheim: Gerstenberg Verlag, 1988), p. 275</ref> And as mummification played a key role in ancient Egyptian religion in general, it would go on to be a vital aspect of animal worship in the Late Period.
