Study: Egyptian 'Mummified Animals' Made Up Of Mud, Feathers and Eggshells

Scientists have been able to unveil murky secrets about the Egypt's ancient mummification. After scanning more than 800 mummies of different shapes, ranging from cats to crocodiles, the researchers found that a third of them contained no animal remains at all.

Instead the mummies were filled with mud, reeds, sticks and eggshells. Another third contained pieces of animal remains, such as the cat and final third contained only fillers like mud.

"The early preconception - and for quite some time afterwards - was that these empty mummies were fakes, but we now believe that there is more likely to be much more to it," said Lidija McKnight, an Egyptologist at the University of Manchester.

"What is more likely to have mattered is that the outside of the mummy looked recognisable to the gods to which it was offered," she said.

"We always knew that not all animal mummies contained what we expected them to contain, but we found around a third don't contain any animal material at all - so no skeletal remains."

The fake mummies may have been created due to high demand for mummified animals. Ancient Egyptians worshipped many gods in animal forms, making mummified animals sacred religious gifts, HNGN noted.

"You would go to a special site, buy an animal mummy," McKnight said. "You'd then give it to a priest, who would collect a group of animal mummies and bury them."

The findings of the study will be presented on BBC's Horizon Program on May 11.