\paperw4260 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 ôThe Egyptians are the only people who raise animals in the home alongside human beings,ö wrote the Greek historian Herodotus in amaze
ment. But domestic animals did not just share their mastersÆ homes: they were also placed in their tombs.\par
In fact a large number of mummified domestic animals have been found in tombs and sometimes even inside sarcophagi.\par
They rarely preserve t
heir original form, but are reduced to a sort of bundle from which only the head emerges, covered with a mask of painted linen reproducing the animalÆs muzzle.