**Did you know about the oldest pet we know by name?
**
Its name was Abuwtiyuw, and apparently was a royal guard dog during the times of the Sixth Dynasty (2345-2181 BC) in Ancient Egypt.
We know this noble dog because of an inscribed stone found by Egyptologyst George Reisner in 1935. The text of the stone says as follows:
"The dog which was the guard of His Majesty, Abuwtiyuw is his name. His Majesty ordered that he be buried (ceremonially), that he be given a coffin from the royal treasury, fine linen in great quantity, (and) incense. His Majesty (also) gave perfumed ointment, and (ordered) that a tomb be built for him by the gangs of masons. His Majesty did this for him in order that he (the dog) might be Honoured (before the great god, Anubis)."
The gifts of the pharaoh make the experts suppose that the dog was mummified, however, its corpse was never found. It appears, according to the text, that Abuwtiyuw was a "ṯzm", a lightly built hunting dog similar to a greyhound, with erect ears and a curly tail.
The name of the dog is not fully translatable, but as noted by Reisner, ꜥbw ("abuw") is an onomatopoeic representation of a dog's bark, and was common to be found in the names of dogs in Ancient Egypt.
Althougt the bury of dogs was not a rare practice in Ancient Egypt, the funeral of Abuwtiyuw was unusually complex, and it appears to be similar to ceremonies for upper-class humans.
The tomb containing his tablet was found on Cemetery G 2100 in Giza West Field, close to the western side of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
