Crocodile Breeding in the Crocodile Cults of the Graeco-Roman Fayum *

Abstract

The discovery of thousands of crocodile mummies during excavations in the Fayum town of Tebtunis has raised questions as to where they were produced and by whom, and whether they were produced in an organised manner as part of the local crocodile cults. This article examines the textual and archaeological evidence for the breeding of crocodiles for mummification as votive offerings, and offers a reconstruction of what this practice may have entailed. The textual evidence in both Greek and Demotic is fragmentary, and sources related to contemporary animal cults complement the picture and provide an insight as to how this cultic practice operated. A recently discovered crocodile nursery in the town of Narmouthis and the multitude of crocodile mummies discovered in crocodile cemeteries throughout the Fayum suggest that crocodile breeding may have been a large-scale enterprise. The examination of this evidence in the light of modern methods of crocodile and alligator breeding sheds new light on how breeding may have been carried out the in the crocodile cults of the Graeco-Roman Fayum.