Dogs in ancient Egypt: their role in daily life and religion

Part 1

How dogs fit into ancient Egyptian society

One relief in the Sixth Dynasty tomb of Mereruka at Saqqara shows hunting dogs attacking desert game. New Kingdom art, including a golden fan from Tutankhamun's tomb, also shows hunting dogs accompanying kings. Dogs also seem to have guarded homes and kept their owners company. If your own dog loves to chase a scent across a field, you are watching an old partnership continue.

Egyptians used at least two words for dog, tsm and iw. More than seventy personal names for individual dogs survive, and some describe how a dog looked, worked, or behaved. Even pharaohs kept dogs, and a stela of King Intef Wahankh II shows him standing before three of his own dogs.

• Nefer, a name meaning Beautiful, likely describing the dog's appearance.
• Hebeny, a name meaning Ebony, also likely describing appearance.
• Meniupu, a name meaning He is a shepherd, describing the dog's job.
• Seneb, a name meaning Healthy, describing the dog's character.

Part 2

Dogs and the gods

Anubis, the jackal-headed god, oversaw embalming and protected the dead in Egyptian belief. A statue of Anubis is dated to the mid seventh to mid fourth century BC.

Anubis was one of three major jackal-headed gods, alongside Wepwawet and Duamutef, all connected with death and the afterlife. Real jackals scavenged around cemeteries, and this behaviour is thought to be why Egyptians linked jackals with the dead.

At Saqqara, two catacombs held enormous numbers of mummified dogs and other canids offered to Anubis. Pilgrims bought these mummies as votive gifts, hoping for the god's favor in return. The larger Saqqara catacomb measures roughly 173 by 140 metres, with individual burial tunnels reaching about 30 metres long.

Part 3

Mourning and burial customs for dogs

One record of a formal dog burial comes from Abutiu, a guard dog who lived during the Sixth Dynasty, between about 2345 and 2181 BC. An inscription found near the Great Pyramid of Giza says the pharaoh ordered Abutiu buried with a coffin from the royal treasury, fine linen, incense, and perfumed ointment, and had a tomb built for him by royal masons. The inscription adds that this was done so the dog would be honoured before Anubis.

This kind of funeral was unusual and was normally reserved for upper-class humans. Millions of other dogs were mummified at Saqqara as votive offerings bought by pilgrims to please the god Anubis.

Ancient Greek writers said Egyptians treated dogs with the same respect the Persians gave them, and that dogs were commonly mummified and buried in family tombs after death. Royal burial grounds from the early dynastic period also contain the graves of dogs alongside women and servants of the household. Whatever your own dog means to you now, this record shows Egyptians felt something like that same attachment.

Part 4

Famous depictions and records of individual dogs

The Abutiu inscription names the dog, calling him the guard of His Majesty, and lists the gifts given in his honour. Part of a leash is carved into one corner, suggesting the tablet once showed an image of Abutiu with his owner.

Other dogs appear by name on stelae and in tomb scenes, sometimes sitting under an owner's chair. A stela of Intef and Senettekh, dated to around 2065 to 2000 BC, shows a small dog under the chair of the woman depicted.

Part 5

What archaeology still can't tell us

No one knows which pharaoh ordered Abutiu's funeral, since his name is missing from the surviving inscription. Neither Abutiu's grave nor his mummy has ever been found, and no image of him survives.

Researchers keep surveying the Saqqara catacombs to work out how they were built and enlarged. The northern Saqqara catacomb appears to have been extended over time, reaching its largest size sometime around the fifth to fourth century BC.

Keep that distinction in mind if you read that Egyptians worshipped dogs; the truth is closer to a mix of everyday work and occasional devotion, much like your own dog's mix of jobs and affection today.