Scientists discovered a 3,000-year-old crocodile. The contents surprised them.

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Here’s what you’ll learn as you read this story:

• The ancient Egyptians routinely mummified crocodiles in elaborate ceremonies in dedication to the crocodile god Sobek.

• A study of one of these crocodiles reveals details about the animal’s demise and the ways in which the ancient Egyptians captured these fearsome predators.

• Using X-ray and CT-scanning technologies, archaeologists can now trace the insides of these animals, which, unlike human mummification, have their organs intact.

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To uncover the mysteries of the past, scientists use a variety of techniques to get to the truth. Climate scientists drill two-mile-long ice cores to reveal Earth’s past climate conditions. Paleontologists analyze sedimentary layers to visualize a physical timeline of past ages. And while Egyptologists similarly use more sophisticated archeological techniques, sometimes it’s better to just use mummified crocodile stomachs.

This is what researchers at the University of Manchester did with the carcass of a 3,000-year-old 7.2-foot-long crocodile housed at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and called 2005.335. Although the ancient Egyptians removed the organs when mummifying people, crocodiles sacrificed to the crocodile god Sobek kept their insides intact, and this small deviation from tradition allows 21st-century scientists to analyze the organs to unravel the mysteries of this unique sacrificial ritual.

To preserve the sample for future display, the research team used non-invasive techniques such as X-ray and CT scanning to catalog the contents of the crocodile’s stomach. Among the ancient gastronomic detritus, scientists found some usual suspects called gastroliths, which are tiny stone crocodiles. Swallow regularly to aid digestion.

However, scientists also found intact fish that had been bitten on a brass hook. Because the time frame between the crocodile’s last meal and its death was so short—the gastroliths had not yet reached the stomach—this crocodile may have been deliberately captured by the ancient Egyptians to be part of the Sobek sacrificial ceremony.

“While previous studies favored invasive techniques such as unwrapping and post-oppsy, 3D radiography offers the ability to look inside these important and fascinating artefacts without damaging them,” University of Manchester archaeologist Lidija McKnight, co-author of a study published in the journal Digital Applications in Archeology and Cultural Heritage‘, said in the press release.

Keeping the long-dead crocodile intact, McKnight and his team “virtually” recreated the bronze hook placed in the specimen’s stomach for future museum display. McKnight says that in the past, ancient Egyptians used hardened clay to make molds and then poured molten metal over a coal fire to make hooks.

“Despite the many millennia that have passed between the production of the ancient fish hook and the modern replica, the casting process is remarkably similar,” McKnight said in a press release.

Although 2005.335 met a terrible fate, crocodiles in ancient Egyptian society were not really for their strength but for their display of gentleness (especially with their young) – but perhaps they were. too respected Archaeologists believe that this Nile-based culture, in which the crocodile was the top predator (besides humans), probably bred animals specifically for sacrificial purposes.The crocodile cults.” In the Egyptian city of Fayum, which was the center of Sobek’s worship, experts have found thousands of mummified crocodiles, Many of them children.

But thanks to these long-ago sacrifices, the story behind these ancient mummified crocodiles is finally spilling its guts.

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