In Ancient Egypt, fake mummies composed of cloth, feathers, odd bones, brick or pottery were beautifully wrapped and sold to unsuspecting pilgrims as offerings. It often seems that the prettier the wrapping, the more likely it was that the mummy bundle was empty. Some of the cat mummies that were made and offered to Bastet -- several of which are now housed in the British Museum -- actually contain the tibia or femur of a bovid, or merely some rags. Similar substitutions have also been found in the hawk mummies from the Sacred Animal Necropolis at Saqqara. Crocodile mummies faked with reeds and bones have also been found.

There may be several explanations for these forgeries. Sometimes a false mummy may have been created because the animals that was supposed to be mummified was hard to catch. Such may be the case with hawks and falcons. Other reasons might be that even if the animals were common, like cats and dogs, they might not have been readily available for mummification when they were needed. Some were probably produced by sellers of religious items when business was slow. The process of preserving a body so that it does not decay often involved expensive ingredients such as natron or myrrh. Since the body could not be seen, it would have been quite economic to dispense with it all together.