Emily Chan
To ancient Egyptians, baboons were sacred as they were considered to be associated with Thoth and Babi, the moon and sun deities.
Thoth was also known as the god of wisdom, writing, and magic. And after their deaths, baboons were glorified as mummies.
The ancient Egyptians practiced the act of mummification to preserve the bodies of the deceased so their spirits would not be lost forever.
Based on how much the baboons were revered, you might assume that they were treated like royalty when they were alive.
However, a new study has shown that they actually suffered from poor living conditions. The study was led by Win Van Neer at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences.
Researchers examined the bones of 36 mummified baboons that were discovered at a sacred necropolis for animals in Egypt’s Gabbanat el-Qurud, or the Valley of the Monkeys.
The remains of the baboons date back to somewhere between the ninth century B.C. and the fourth century A.D. Out of the 36 skeletons, only four appeared to have been in good health.
The rest showed signs of malnutrition and lack of sunlight, which suggested that they were kept indoors and fed an unbalanced diet. Scientists also think that the baboons were born and raised in captivity.
Almost all the bones that were analyzed had evidence of severe metabolic disease. Additionally, there were “strange abnormalities” on the skeletons that stemmed from extreme vitamin D deficiency.
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