Crocodile hunting. Egypt, 1870s. Photographer: Henri Bechard Henri Bashar opened a studio in Cairo and sold tourists photographs with views of ancient Egyptian structures. From the 1st millennium BC to the 4th century AD (Roman period), the ancient Egyptians mummified millions of animals, most of the mummies were classified by Egyptologists as ‘votive sacrifices’ to gods and goddesses. Before the construction of the Aswan Dam, Nile crocodiles were found throughout the Nile. Moreover, in ancient times crocodiles were found in Israel, Lebanon and Syria. The ancient Egyptians hunted crocodiles for their mummies, scientists have come to this conclusion. The crocodile, from which the ancient Egyptians made one of the mummies, was not grown in special conditions at the temple. Scientists from France and the United States came to this conclusion after studying the remains using an elementary particle accelerator, the Journal of Archaeological Sciences writes. Experts examined the crocodile mummy from the Lyon Museum, for a long time it was located in the Kom Ombo temple in southern Egypt. The animal was embalmed at a time when Egypt was ruled by the Roman Empire. The artifact was studied at the European Synchrotron Radiation Center in Grenoble. During the work of the international research program MAHES (Momies Animales et Humaines EgyptienneS), we analyzed the crocodile mummy using synchrotron multiscale microtomography. The findings show that the animal was killed while living in the wild and then quickly mummified. This allows us to suggest hunting as a way to obtain a crocodile for mummification. This practice, which has never been documented by Egyptology, is the first concrete evidence of the use of hunting to obtain animals for mummification.