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Sculpture of Anubis
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In ancient Egypt, Greyhounds were kept as companions, hunting partners and were practically worshipped. Anubis is the Egyptian god of the dead, represented as a black jackal or dog, or as a man with the head of a dog or jackal. After the early period of the Old Kingdom, he was superseded by Osiris as god of the dead, being relegated to a supporting role as a god of the funeral cult and of the care of the dead. The black colour represented the colour of human corpses after they had undergone the embalming process. In the Book of the Dead, he was depicted as presiding over the weighing of the heart of the deceased in the Hall of the Two Truths.
An Egyptian Anubis Figure - wooden carving. Luxor, Ptolemaic Period, ca. 3000 B.C. Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.
Image from Appalachian State University Archives.
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