Ancient Egypt's sacred baboons had tough lives, study suggests

Baboons sacred to the ancient Egyptians were glorified as mummies after their death, but they suffered from poor conditions when they were alive, a new study suggests.

The researchers examined bones from dozens of mummified baboons from ancient Egypt between the ninth century B.C. and the fourth century A.D. and found evidence that many had suffered from poor diets as well as bone disorders often caused by lack of sunlight.

Of the remains of 36 baboons found at a necropolis for sacred animals at Gabbanat el-Qurud in southern Egypt, just four appeared to be in good health. “All the others showed deficiencies in the skeleton,” said Wim Van Neer, a paleontologist at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences and lead author of the study, published today (Dec. 6) in the journal PLOS One.

Devi, 1 year ago

I feel like that makes sense. I was reading a book recently about zoo history and it was relatively recently when a lot of primates were kept exclusively inside to keep them warm, it makes logical sense to protect them, but a few zoos in the 20's and 30's started giving them a bit of time outside and realised that it made a real difference to their health. Now we generally give them free access outside and all the other improvements to see long healthy lives.

It's taken a long time for us to realise how to raise healthy humans, nevermind healthy animals.

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