Mummified frogs have been found in thetombs of Thebes . Being famously wet animals in life , it ’s not that strange for frogs to be dry up without human interposition – all they need to do to get that way is to snuff it in a warm , dry place . But Heqet ? Well , that upped the prayer for dried - out amphibians .
Heqet ( also Heqtit or Hekt ) was the name given to a salientian - headed goddess that was think to map birth rate . It ’s probable because the one-year floods upon which Ancient Egypt ’s delicate harvest cycle depend would ’ve been assort with the comer of frogs . As river ( Nile , Tigris , Euphrates ) flushed with water , along too came the croaking amphibians . The life history that body of water gave to the grain was credited to the frog , and as a result , many god and goddesses were depicted in their simulacrum .
Another frog god , Ptah , is reckon to have been inspired by the transformative life bicycle of frog that grow from eggs into tadpoles , and later metamorphize into frogs . The frog - manoeuvre Ptah ’s transformation centered around becoming the opener of the nether humankind , as the god of creation .
Frogs were treasure by living Ancient Egyptians who would wear out them in the form of talisman , mean to bolster up birthrate . However , when the time issue forth to pop one ’s sandal , batrachian follow people into the afterlife , too .
“ [ salientian ] were buried with the dead to protect and rejuvenate them , ” wroteDr Marzouk Al - say Aman . “ frog were often mummified with the dead as magical amulet to check rebirth . ”
A handy tombmate for anyone with their tenderness set on rebirth , but the mummified frogs would have looked rather strange next to some of the other mummified contentedness of Ancient Egyptian tomb . Earlier in 2023 , archaeologists discovered “ Ten crocodile mummies , including five more or less ended bodies and five head [ … ] in varying state of matter of saving and completeness , ” said the source of the associated work in astatement .
Exactly why one might takecrocodilesinto the afterlife has been consider , but one hypothesis is that dead Egyptians used the trunk as gifts to the crocodile gods , such as the reptile - headed Sobek , as a way of dress favor with these dangerous Nile - dwelling brute . One of the mummified crocodile measured3.5 meters ( 11.5 feet)from honker to tail , which no dried - up frog can stand up up to , but when it comes to watery rebirth ? Heqet was an Ancient Egyptian ’s best wager .
