Mummy and Wooden Stretcher of the Crocodile God Sobek

The mummy of Sobek, the crocodile god, is embalmed and resting on a wooden stretcher. During the second century BC, it would have been carried in processions through the village. To his worshipers, he was a god who created the Nile, a god of fertility and rebirth, and the symbolic strength of the ruler of Egypt.

Depicted either as a crocodile-headed man or as a full crocodile, the god Sobek was usually shown wearing a plumed headdress with a horned sun disk or the atef crown. In his hands he was shown to carry a "Was" scepter and the "Ankh" sign of life.

The wooden stretcher has four arms and is simple to assemble. It is long so that there would be space for the number of priests needed to carry it. During festivals, the mummified crocodile was placed on the stretcher and carried on the shoulders of the priests, who walked around the temple in procession before placing the god in its shrine.

The wooden stand, in the shape of a box composed of panels, was intended to support the stretcher.