Oldest Known Pet Cemetery in Ancient Egyptian Port With 2,000-Year-Old Remains of Cats, Dogs

Archaeologists found the world's oldest pet cemetery containing nearly 600 cats, monkeys, hippos, falcons, and dogs carefully placed in individual graves as if they were only asleep.

Analyzing the Oldest Pet Cemetery in Egyptian Seaport

The individual graves were located in a dumpsite outside the ancient town of Berenike, a remote seaport on the west coast of the Red Sea. Some of the remains were still found to be wearing collars and other adornments, while others showed evidence of care by humans due to illnesses.

However, the lack of mummification at the 2,000-year-old site suggests that the companion animals were not used for rituals or venerations to gods.

The town of Berenike was initially founded by Pharoah Ptolemy II Philadelphus in 275 BC who named the town after his mother. On its heyday, the town was a bustling Roman port where excavations also uncovered spices, fabrics, ceramic, and other goods from as far as India.

Berenike was also a way station for elephants from Africa that were sent out to fight in numerous battles.

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Berenike's Close Ties with Domestic Animals

Archeazoologist Marta Osypinska discovered the Egyptian pet cemetery site back in 2011, publishing her findings in the journal Antiquity entitled, "Pet cats at the Early Roman Red Sea port of Berenike, Egypt," in 2016.

Together with her archaeologist husband Piotr, Osypunska unearthed 100 animal remains by 2017 from mostly cat remains that painted an image for researchers on what the area was used for in ancient times.

Other researchers believed that the located remains were merely discarded trash since burying pets in ancient Egypt was an uncommon practice.

According to Osypinska's research published in the journal World Archaeology entitled, "ANCIENT PETS. The health, diet and diversity of cats, dogs and monkeys from the Red Sea port of Berenice (Egypt) in the 1st-2nd centuries AD," Berenike thrived for roughly a hundred years.

Together, the team unearthed 585 animals with some native to Africa. More than 90% were cats with some baboons, dogs, and macaques.

Osypinska told Science Mag that most of the remains were covered in pottery or textiles, forming a sarcophagus. Consulting with a veterinarian, researchers were able to determine that several of the animals suffered illnesses that would have immediately killed them without human intervention.

A dog's remains that suffered from bone cancer was laid in a mat of palm leaves covered with amphora with its belly containing remains of goat meat and fish, its final meal. Many of the canine remains had missing teeth, gum disease, or showed evidence of joint degeneration.

The devotion required to nurse older pets revealed that the people of Berenike had strong emotional ties with their domesticated pets.

Mass animal graves have been found by archaeologists around Egypt. However, most of the time, the animals were venerated or sacrificed to gods and weren't laid to rest as pets.