Dr. Salima Ikram explains how Egyptian embalmers would go to painstaking and expensive lengths to mummify everything, from ibis to cows, mice and fish. Cats had particularly high status in Egyptian society, while mummified dogs have been found by the thousands. Even lowly scarab beetles were carefully preserved.

The divinity of animals was a key part of religious belief in Egypt. Dr. Salima Ikram from American University at Cairo explains how Egyptians believed that animals were born as gods’ creatures, and that gods would enter their bodies and animate it.