View source for Biology:Cats in ancient Egypt

{{Short description|Worshipped animals of Egypt}}
{{Infobox hieroglyphs |title=Cat |name unicode=𓏇𓇋𓅱𓃠|name=<hiero>mi-i-w-E13</hiero> |name transcription=''mjw''<ref>{{Cite book |first=G. |last=Takács |date=2008 |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden / Boston |title=Etymological Dictionary of Egyptian |volume=3 |isbn=9789047423799 |page=135 |chapter=mjw |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=wAWwCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA135}}</ref>}}
[[Image:Bastet_dame_katzenkopf.jpg|thumb|upright|Cat-headed deity Bastet]]
In ancient Egypt, [[Biology:Cat|cat]]s were represented in social and religious scenes dating as early as 1980 BC.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=El-Kilany |first=E. |last2=Mahran |first2=H. |date=2015 |title=What lies under the chair! A study in ancient Egyptian private tomb scenes, Part I: Animals |journal=Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt |volume=51 |pages=243–264 |jstor=26580640}}</ref> Several ancient Egyptian deities were depicted and sculptured with cat-like heads such as [[Unsolved:Mafdet|Mafdet]], [[Unsolved:Bastet|Bastet]] and [[Unsolved:Sekhmet|Sekhmet]], representing justice, fertility, and power, respectively.<ref name="Malek1997">{{cite book |title=The Cat in Ancient Egypt |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |last=Malek |first=J. |date=1997 |edition=Revised |location=Philadelphia |isbn=9780812216325}}</ref> The deity Mut was also depicted as a cat and in the company of a cat.<ref name="Velde1982">{{cite book |last=Te Velde |first=H. |chapter=The cat as sacred animal of the goddess Mut |title=Studies in Egyptian Religion dedicated to Professor Jan Zandee |publisher=Brill |date=1982 |location=Leiden |pages=127–137 |isbn=978-90-04-37862-9 |editor1-last=Van Voss |editor1-first=H. |editor2-last=Hoens |editor2-first=D. J. |editor3-last=Van de Plas |editor3-first=A. |editor4-last=Mussies |editor4-first=G. |editor5-last=Te Velde |editor5-first=H. |chapter-url= http://www.jacobusvandijk.nl/docs/Fs_Zandee.pdf}}</ref>

Cats were praised for killing venomous snakes, rodents and birds that damaged crops, and protecting the [[Social:Pharaoh|Pharaoh]] since at least the First Dynasty of Egypt. Skeletal remains of cats were found among funerary goods dating to the 12th Dynasty. The protective function of cats is indicated in the ''[[Religion:Book of the Dead|Book of the Dead]]'', where a cat represents [[Religion:Ra|Ra]] and the benefits of the sun for life on Earth. Cat-shaped decorations used during the [[History:New Kingdom of Egypt|New Kingdom of Egypt]] indicate that the domesticated cat became more popular in daily life. Cats were depicted in association with the name of Bastet.<ref name="Langton">{{cite book |last1=Langton |first1=N. |last2=Langton |first2=M. B. |title=The cat in ancient Egypt, illustrated from the collection of cat and other Egyptian figures formed |publisher={{wipe|Cambridge University Press}} |date=1940}}</ref>

Cat cemeteries at the archaeological sites Speos Artemidos, Bubastis, and Saqqara were used for several centuries. They contained vast numbers of cat mummies and cat statues that are exhibited in museum collections worldwide.<ref name="Zivie2005">{{cite book |last1=Zivie |first1=A. |last2=Lichtenberg |first2=R. |date=2005 |title=Divine Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt |publisher=American University in Cairo Press |location=Cairo |isbn=9789774248580 |pages=106−119 |editor-last=Ikram |editor-first=Salima |editor1-link=Salima Ikram |chapter=The Cats of the Goddess Bastet |chapter-url= https://archive.org/details/divinecreaturesa00ikra/page/106}}</ref> Among the mummified animals [[Social:Excavation (archaeology)|excavated]] in Gizeh, the [[Biology:African wildcat|African wildcat]] (''Felis lybica'') is the most common cat followed by the [[Biology:Jungle cat|jungle cat]] (''Felis chaus'').<ref name="Morrison-Scott1952">{{cite journal |last=Morrison-Scott |first=T. C. S. |title=The mummified cats of ancient Egypt |journal=Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London |date=1952 |volume=121 |issue=4 |pages=861–867 |doi=10.1111/j.1096-3642.1952.tb00788.x |url= https://www.gwern.net/docs/catnip/1952-morrisonscott.pdf}}</ref> In view of the huge number of cat mummies found in Egypt, the cat was certainly important for the country's economy; cats were bred for the purpose of sacrifice and mummification, requiring a trading network for the supply of food, oils and resins for embalming them.<ref name="Ikram2015">{{cite book |last=Ikram |first=Salima |author-link=Salima Ikram |chapter=Speculations on the role of animal cults in the economy of Ancient Egypt |date=2015 |editor1-last=Massiera |editor1-first=Magali |editor2-last=Mathieu |editor2-first=Bernard Henri |editor3-last=Rouffet |editor3-first=Frédéric |title=Apprivoiser le sauvage / Taming the Wild |publisher=Cahiers de l'Égypte Nilotique et Méditerranéenne, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique |series=''Archéologie des Sociétés Méditerranéennes'' series, no. 11 |location=Montpellier |pages=211–228 |chapter-url= https://www.academia.edu/22242570/2015_Speculations_on_the_Role_of_Animal_Cults_in_the_Economy_of_Ancient_Egypt_In_M_Massiera_B_Mathieu_and_Fr_Rouffet_eds_Apprivoiser_le_Sauvage_Taming_the_Wild_CENiM_11_Montpellier_University_Paul_Val%C3%A9ry_Montpellier_211_228}}</ref>

== History ==
[[Unsolved:Mafdet|Mafdet]] was the first known cat-headed deity in ancient Egypt. During the First Dynasty, she was regarded as protector of the pharaoh's chambers against snakes, scorpions and evil.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Divine Cat and the Snake in Egypt |last=Hornblower |first=G. D. |journal=Man |date=1943 |issue=43 |pages=85–87 |volume=43 |doi=10.2307/2792847 |jstor=2792847}}</ref> She was often also depicted with a head of a [[Biology:Leopard|leopard]] (''Panthera pardus'') or a [[Biology:Cheetah|cheetah]] (''Acinonyx jubatus'').<ref>{{cite journal |title=Die Pantherkatze Mafdet |last=Westendorf |first=W. |journal=Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft |date=1968 |volume=118 |issue=2 |pages=248–256 |jstor=43370059}}</ref> She was particularly prominent during the reign of Den.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Netjerikhet Stela and the Early Dynastic Cult of Ra |last=Reader |first=C. |journal=Journal of Egyptian Archaeology |date=2014 |volume=100 |issue=1 |pages=421–435 |doi=10.1177/030751331410000122 |s2cid=190788758}}</ref>

The deity [[Unsolved:Bastet|Bastet]] is known from at least the Second Dynasty onwards. At the time, she was depicted with a [[Biology:Lion|lion]] (''Panthera leo'') head. Seals and stone vessels with her name were found in the tombs of the pharaohs Khafre and Nyuserre Ini, indicating that she was regarded as protector since the mid 30th century BC during the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties.<ref name="Raffaele2005">{{cite journal |last=Raffaele |first=Francesco |title=An unpublished Early Dynastic stone vessel fragment with incised inscription naming the goddess Bastet |journal=Cahiers Caribéens d'Égyptologie |publisher=Université des Antilles, Guyane / [[Organization:University of Yaoundé|University of Yaoundé]] / [[Organization:University of Barcelona|University of Barcelona]] |date=2005 |issue=7e8 |page=27e60}}</ref> A wall painting in the Fifth Dynasty's burial ground at Saqqara shows a small cat with a collar, suggesting that tamed African wildcats were kept in the pharaonic quarters by the 26th century BC.<ref>{{cite book |last=Boettger |first=Caesar R. |date=1958 |title=Die Haustiere Afrikas: Ihre Herkunft, Bedeutung und Aussichten bei der weiteren wirtschaftlichen Erschliessung des Kontinents |publisher=VEB Gustav Fischer Verlag |location=Jena, Germany}}</ref>

[[File:Cat amulette-E 10661-P5260433-gradient.jpg|thumb|left|Cat amulet]]
Amulets with cat heads came into fashion in the 21st century BC during the 11th Dynasty.<ref name="Langton" /> A mural from this period in the tomb of Baqet III depicts a cat in a hunting scene confronting a rat-like [[Biology:Rodent|rodent]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Newberry |first1=P. E. |last2=Griffith |first2=F. L. |date=1893 |title=Beni Hasan. Volume 2 |location=London |publisher=Egypt Exploration Fund |chapter=Tomb No. 15 |pages=41–50 |chapter-url= https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/newberry1893bd2/0062/image}}</ref>

{{multiple image |perrow=1 |image1=Tomb of Nakht (7).jpg |left|caption1=Cat eating a fish under a chair, mural in the tomb of Nakht copied by Norman de Garis Davies<ref>{{cite book |last1=De Garis Davies |first1=N. |date=1917 |title=The tomb of Nakht at Thebes |publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |location=New York |chapter=Family intercourse |chapter-url= https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/davies1917/0086/image |page=55−59}}</ref> |image2=Sarcophagus of Prince Thutmose's cat by Madam Rafaèle.jpg | |caption2=Sarcophagus of Prince Thutmose's cat, exhibited in the Museum of Fine Arts of Valenciennes, France}}

A tomb at the necropolis Umm El Qa'ab contained 17 cat skeletons dating to the early 20th century BC. Next to the skeletons stood small pots that are thought to have contained milk for the cats.<ref name="Petrie1925">{{cite book |last1=Petrie |first1=W. M. F. |last2=Gardiner |first2=Alan |last3=Petrie |first3=Hilda |last4=Murray |first4=Margaret A. |author4-link=Margaret Murray |date=1925 |title=Tombs of the Courtiers and Oxyrhynkhos |series=37 |publisher=British School of Archaeology in Egypt |location=London |chapter=Cats' tomb |page=11}}</ref> Several tomb murals in the Theban Necropolis show cats in domestic scenes. These tombs belonged to nobles and high-ranking officials of the 18th Dynasty and were built in the 15th and 14th centuries BC. The murals show a cat sitting under a chair during a buffet, eating meat or fish; some show it in the company of a [[Biology:Goose|goose]] or a [[Biology:Monkey|monkey]]. A cat in hunting and fowling scenes is another recurring motif in murals of Theban tombs.<ref name="Porter_al1960">{{cite book |last1=Porter |first1=B. |last2=Moss |first2=R. L. B. |last3=Burney |first3=E. W. |date=1960 |title=Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs and Paintings |volume=I: The Theban Necropolis, Part 1: Private Tombs |publisher=Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum |location=Oxford |edition=2nd, revised and augmented |chapter=Numbered tombs |pages=1–446}}</ref>

The first known indication for the mummification of a cat was found in an elaborately carved [[Earth:Limestone|limestone]] sarcophagus dated to about 1350 BC. This cat is assumed to have been Prince Thutmose's beloved pet.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ikram |first1=Salima |last2=Iskander |first2=Nasry |date=2002 |title=Non-human Mummies: Nos. 24048–24056, 29504–29903 (selected), 51084–51101, 61089 |editor1-last=Ikram |editor1-first=Salima |editor1-link=Salima Ikram |editor2-last=Iskander |editor2-first=Nasri |editor3=Al-Miṣrī (Al-Miòsråi) |editor3-first=Matḥaf (Matòhaf)<!--Different biblio. databases credit him differently.--> |editor4-last=Al-Aʻlá lil-Āthār |editor4-first=Majlis |editor5-last=Al-Thaqāfah |editor5-first=W.<!--Can't actually find any evidence of this alleged 5th editor in any biblio. databases.--> |series=''Catalogue General of Egyptian Antiquities in the Cairo Museum'' series |publisher=Supreme Council of Antiquities Press |location=Cairo |isbn=9789773052751}}</ref>

From the 22nd Dynasty at around the mid 950s BC onwards, the deity Bastet and her temple in the city of Bubastis grew in popularity. She was later shown only with a [[Biology:Felis|small cat]] head.<ref name="Malek1997" /><ref name="Raffaele2005" /> Domestic cats (''Felis catus'') were increasingly worshiped and considered sacred. When they died, they were embalmed, coffined and buried in cat cemeteries.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Notes and speculations on the domestication of the cat in Egypt |last=Baldwin |first=J. A. |journal=Anthropos |date=1975 |volume=70 |issue=3/4 |pages=428–448 |jstor=40458771}}</ref> The domestic cat was regarded as living [[Religion:Incarnation|incarnation]] of Bastet who protects the household against granivores, whereas the lion-headed deity [[Unsolved:Sekhmet|Sekhmet]] was worshipped as protector of the pharaohs.<ref name="Engels1999">{{cite book |last=Engels |first=D. W. |date=1999 |title=Classical Cats: The Rise and Fall of the Sacred Cat |publisher=Routledge |location=London / New York |isbn=0415212510 |chapter=Egypt |pages=18−47 |chapter-url= https://archive.org/details/classicalcats00dona/page/18}}</ref> During the reign of Pharaoh Osorkon II in the 9th century BC, the temple of Bastet was enlarged by a festival hall.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bakr |first1=M. I. |last2=Brandl |first2=H. |date=2010 |chapter=Bubastis and the Temple of Bastet |title=Egyptian Antiquities from Kufur Nigm and Bubastis |publisher=Museums in the Nile Delta |series=1 |location=Cairo / Berlin |pages=27–36 |editor1-last=Bakr |editor1-first=M. I. |editor2-last=Brandl |editor2-first=H. |editor3-last=Kalloniatis |editor3-first=F. |isbn=9783000335099}}</ref> Cat statues and statuettes from this period exist in diverse sizes and materials, including solid and hollow cast [[Chemistry:Bronze|bronze]], [[Chemistry:Alabaster|alabaster]] and faïence.<ref>{{cite book |last=Schorsch |first=D. |date=1988 |title=Conservation of Ancient Egyptian Materials, preprints of the conference organised by the United Kingdom Institute for Conservation, Archaeology Section, held at Bristol, December 15–16 |publisher=UKIC Archaeology Section |location=London |pages=41–50 |chapter=Technological Examinations of Ancient Egyptian Theriomorphic Hollow Cast Bronzes – Some Case Studies |editor1-last=Watkins |editor1-first=S. C. |editor2-last=Brown |editor2-first=C. E. |chapter-url= https://www.academia.edu/29870792}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Mechanical Engineering in Ancient Egypt, Part XXXIX: Statues of Cats, Dogs and Lions |last=Hassaan |first=G. A. |journal=International Journal of Emerging Engineering Research and Technology |date=2017 |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=36–48 |url= http://www.ijeert.org/papers/v5-i2/5.pdf |doi=10.22259/ijeert.0502005|doi-access=free}}</ref>

{{multiple image |perrow=1 |image2=Louvre egyptologie 21.jpg |image1=Louvres antiquites egyptiennes rdc 195.JPG |footer=Cat mummies exhibited in the Department of Egyptian Antiquities of the Louvre}}

Mummifying animals grew in popularity during the Late Period of ancient Egypt from 664 BC onwards. Mummies were used for votive offerings to the associated deity, mostly during festivals or by pilgrims.<ref name="Ikram2015" /> Catacombs from the [[History:New Kingdom of Egypt|New Kingdom]] period in the Bubastis, Saqqara and Beni Hasan necropoli were reused as cemeteries for mummies offered to Bastet.<ref name="Zivie2005" />

In the mid 5th century BC, Herodotus described the annual festival at the Bubastis temple as the largest in the country, attended by several hundred thousand pilgrims.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rutherford |first1=I. |date=2007 |chapter=Down-Stream to the Cat-Goddess: Herodotus on Egyptian Pilgrimage |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=lC6XWewUgoIC&pg=PA131 |pages=131–149 |title=Pilgrimage in Graeco-Roman and early Christian antiquity. Seeing the Gods |editor1-last=Elsner |editor1-first=J. |editor2-last=Rutherford |editor2-first=I. |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780191566752}}</ref>

During the Hellenistic period between 323 and 30 BC, the goddess [[Biology:Isis|Isis]] became associated with Bastet and cats, as indicated by an inscription at the Temple of Edfu: “Isis is the soul of Bastet”. In this period, cats were systematically bred to be killed and to be mummified as sacrifices to the gods.<ref name="Engels1999" />

As described by Diodorus Siculus, killing a cat was regarded as a serious crime. In the years between 60 and 56 BC, outraged people [[Social:Lynching|lynched]] a Roman for killing a cat, although pharaoh Ptolemy XII Auletes tried to intervene.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Diodorus Siculus, Book 1: A Commentary |location=Leiden |publisher=Brill |chapter=Chapter 4 |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=sXiMtMnPHikC&pg=PA39 |pages=38–42 |first=A. |last=Burton |date=1973 |isbn=9789004035140}}</ref>

Cats and religion began to be disassociated after Egypt became a Roman province in 30 BC.<ref name="Malek1997" /> A series of decrees and edicts issued by Roman Emperors in the 4th and 5th centuries AD gradually curtailed the practice of [[Religion:Paganism|paganism]] and pagan rituals in Egypt. Pagan temples were impounded and sacrifices prohibited by 380 AD. Three edicts issued between 391 and 392 prohibited pagan rituals and burial ceremonies at all cult sites. Death penalty for offenders was introduced in 395, and the destruction of pagan temples decreed in 399. By 415, the Christian church received all property that was formerly dedicated to paganism. Pagans were exiled by 423, and crosses replaced pagan symbols following a decree from 435.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Tomorad |first=M. |title=The end of Ancient Egyptian religion: The prohibition of paganism in Egypt from the middle of the 4th to the middle of the 6th century A.D. |journal=The Journal of Egyptological Studies |date=2015 |volume=IV |pages=147–167 |url= https://egyptology-bg.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/egyptology-bg.org-JES4-pt9.pdf}}</ref>

Egypt has since experienced a decline in the veneration once held for cats.<ref name="Engels1999" /> They were still respected in the 15th century, when Arnold von Harff travelled to Egypt and observed mamluk warriors treating cats with honour and empathy.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Letts |first1=M. |date=1946 |title=The Pilgrimage Of Arnold Von Harff, Knight |publisher=Hakluyt Society |location=London |edition=Translated from the German and edited with notes and an introduction |chapter=Turks, Jews and Christians |pages=113–119 |chapter-url= https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.59276/2015.59276.The-Pilgrimage-Of-Arnold-Von-Harff-Knight#page/n157/}}</ref> Gentle treatment of cats is part of Islamic tradition.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Shehada |first1=H. A. |date=2012 |chapter=Animals in Mamluk Society: Stray Cats |pages=77–79 |title=Mamluks and Animals: Veterinary Medicine in Medieval Islam |publisher=Brill |isbn=9789004234222 |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=PRczAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA77}}</ref>

==Expeditions and excavations==
In 1799, members of the French Commission des Sciences et des Arts surveyed the old city of Lycopolis near [[Place:Asyut|Asyut]] for the first time and found mummified cats and remains of other animals.<ref>{{cite book |date=1821 |title=Description de l'Égypte, ou, Recueil des observations et des recherches qui ont été faites en Égypte pendant l'expédition de l'armée française. Tome 4: Antiquitiés, descriptions |location=Paris |publisher=C. L. F. Panckoucke |edition=Second |editor1-last=Jomard |editor1-first=E. |last1=Jollois |first1=J. B. P. |last2=Devilliers |first2=R. E. |chapter=Descriptions de Syout, et des antiquitiés qui paraissent avoir appartenu à l'ancienne ville de Lycopolis |pages=125–157 |chapter-url= https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k28001n/f159.image}}</ref>
They also found mummified cats and cat skeletons in the Theban Necropolis.<ref>{{cite book |date=1826 |title=Description de l'Égypte, ou, Recueil des observations et des recherches qui ont été faites en Égypte pendant l'expédition de l'armée française. Tome 10: Explications des planches |location=Paris |publisher=C. L. F. Panckoucke |edition=2nd |editor1-last=Jomard |editor1-first=E. |last1=Savigny |first1=J. C. |chapter=Planche 51 |pages=174–175 |chapter-url= https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k28007q/f191.image}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |date=1826 |title=Description de l'Égypte, ou, Recueil des observations et des recherches qui ont été faites en Égypte pendant l'expédition de l'armée française. Tome 10: Explications des planches |location=Paris |publisher=C. L. F. Panckoucke |edition=2nd |editor1-last=Jomard |editor1-first=E. |last1=Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire |first1=E. |chapter=Planche 54 |pages=177–184 |chapter-url= https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k28007q/f200.image}}</ref> In the 1820s, the Louvre Museum exhibited cat statues made of wood, bronze, and enameled pottery that originated mostly in Bubastis.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lenoir |first1=A. |date=1828 |title=Examen des nouvelles salles du Louvre: contenant les Antiquités égyptiennes, grecques et romaines |location=Paris |publisher=C. Farcy |pages=75–76 |chapter=Le Chat et la Chatte, emblême du Soleil et de la Lune, ou d'Osiris et d'Isis |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=E_8-AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA75}}</ref>

In 1830, [[Biography:Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg|Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg]] accounted of having observed three different small cat forms in Egypt: the jungle cat, the African wildcat, and a sacred cat that was intermediate in size between the jungle cat and the domestic cat. He called this cat ''Felis bubastis''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hemprich |first1=W. |last2=Ehrenberg |first2=C. G. |date=1830 |chapter=De Africae orientalis et Asiae occidentalis Felibus in genere, appendix |title=Symbolae Physicae, seu Icones et Descriptiones Mammalium quae ex Itinere per Africam Borealem et Asiam Occidentalem Friderici Guilelmi Hemprich et Christiani Godofredi Ehrenberg. Decas Secunda. Zoologica I. Mammalia II |location=Berlin |publisher=Officina Academica |editor-first=C. G. |editor-last=Ehrenberg |chapter-url= https://archive.org/details/SymbolaephysicaMammEhreA/page/n65 |page=65}}</ref>

The Egypt Exploration Society funded [[Social:Excavation (archaeology)|excavations]] in Bubastis in the late 1880s. Édouard Naville accounted of numerous cat statues already available in [[Place:Cairo|Cairo]] shops at the time. At the city's cemetery of cats, he and colleagues emptied several large pits up to a volume of {{convert|720|cuft|order=flip|abbr=on}} filled with cat and [[Biology:Egyptian mongoose|Egyptian mongoose]] (''Herpestes ichneumon'') bones.<ref>{{cite book |last=Naville |first=E. |date=1891 |title=Bubastis (1887–1889) |location=London |publisher=Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. |chapter=The Cemetery of Cats |pages=52–54 |chapter-url= https://archive.org/details/bubastis08navi/page/52}}</ref> Among the bones, some embalming material, porcelain and bronze objects, beads and ornaments, and statues of Bastet and Nefertem were also found. By 1889, the cemetery was considered exhausted.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Goddard |first1=F. B. |date=1889 |title=Report on Recent Excavations and Explorations in Egypt during the Season of 1888–89 |journal=The American Journal of Archaeology and of the History of the Fine Arts |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=68–77 |jstor=495960 |doi=10.2307/495960}}</ref>

[[Image:Mummified cat, Egypt, Beni Hassen, Middle Kingdom, 2040-1782 BC, site of Khnumhotep II, linen and pigments - Fitchburg Art Museum - DSC08616.JPG|thumb|left|Cat mummy from Beni Hasan in the Fitchburg Art Museum]]
In the late 1880s, more than 200,000 mummified animals, most of them cats, were found in the cemetery of Beni Hasan in central Egypt.<ref name="Herdman">{{cite journal |title=Notes on some mummy cats, &co., from Egypt |last=Herdman |first=W. A. |journal=Proceedings and Transactions of the Liverpool Biological Society |date=1890 |volume=4 |pages=95–96 |url= https://archive.org/details/proceedingstr4188990live/page/n139}}</ref> In 1890, William Martin Conway wrote about excavations in Speos Artemidos near Beni Hasan: "The plundering of the cemetery was a sight to see, but one had to stand well windward. The village children came from day to day and provided themselves with the most attractive mummies they could find. These they took down the river bank to sell for the smallest coin to passing travelers. The path became strewn with mummy cloth and bits of cats' skulls and bones and fur in horrid positions, and the wind blew the fragments about and carried the stink afar."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Conway |first=M. |date=1890 |title=The Cats of Ancient Egypt |journal=English Illustrated Magazine |volume=7 |pages=251–254}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Conway |first=M. |date=1891 |title=The Dawn of Art in the Ancient World: An Archaeological Sketch |publisher=Macmillan and Co. |location=New York |chapter=Chapter VII. The Cats of Ancient Egypt |pages=172–185 |chapter-url= https://archive.org/details/dawnartinancien01conwgoog/page/n187}}</ref> In 1890, a shipment of thousands of animal mummies reached Liverpool. Most of them were cat mummies. A large part was sold as fertiliser, a small part was purchased by the zoological museum of the city's university college.<ref name="Herdman" />

The Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon received hundreds of cat mummies excavated by Gaston Maspero at Beni Hasan, Sakkara and Thebes. The cats were of all ages from adult to kittens with deciduous teeth. Some of them were contained in statues and sarcophagi. The larger ones were bandaged in cloth of different colours with decorated heads and ears formed of rubberized tissue.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lortet |first1=L. C. E. |last2=Gaillard |first2=C. |date=1903 |title=La faune momifiée de l'Ancienne Égypte |series=''Archives du Muséum d'histoire naturelle de Lyon'' series |volume=8 |chapter=Chats |language=fr |issue=1 |pages=19–31 |location=Lyon |publisher=Musée des Confluences |doi=10.3406/mhnly.1903.959 |s2cid=243658672 |chapter-url= https://www.persee.fr/doc/mhnly_0374-5465_1903_num_8_1_959?pageid=t4_137#mhnly_0374-5465_1903_num_8_1_T4_0019_0000}}</ref>

The [[Organization:Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale|Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale]] funded excavations near [[Place:Faiyum|Faiyum]] where Pierre Jouguet found a tomb full of cat mummies in 1901. It was located in the midst of tombs with [[Biology:Nile crocodile|crocodile]] mummies.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jouguet |first1=P. |date=1902 |title=Rapport sur deux missions au Fayôum |journal=Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres |volume=46 |issue=3 |pages=346–359 |doi=10.3406/crai.1902.17177}}</ref>

In 1907, the British Museum received a collection of 192 mummified cats and 11 small carnivores excavated at Gizeh by Flinders Petrie. The mummies probably date to between 600 and 200 BC.<ref name="Morrison-Scott1952" /> Two of these cat mummies were [[Physics:Radiography|radiograph]]ed in 1980. The analysis revealed that they were deliberately strangulated before they reached the age of two years. They were probably used to supply the demand for mummified cats as votive offerings.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Armitage |first1=P. L. |last2=Clutton-Brock |first2=J. |title=A radiological and histological investigation into the mummification of cats from Ancient Egypt |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |date=1981 |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=185–196 |doi=10.1016/0305-4403(81)90023-6|bibcode=1981JArSc...8..185A}}</ref>

Remains of 23 cats were found in the early 1980s in a small [[Engineering:Mastaba|mastaba]] tomb at the archaeological site Balat in Dakhla Oasis. The tomb was established during the [[History:Old Kingdom of Egypt|Old Kingdom of Egypt]] in the 25th century BC and reused later. The cats were probably mummified as tissue shreds were still stuck in their bones.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Minaut-Gout |first1=A. |date=1983 |title=Rapport préliminaire sur la quatrième campagne de fouilles du Mastaba II à Balat (Oasis de Dakhleh). Neuf tombes du secteur nord |journal=Annales du Service des Antiquités de l'Égypte |issue=69 |pages=113–119}}</ref>

Excavations in the Bubasteum area at Saqqara in the early 1980s yielded 200 cat mummies in the tomb of the Vizier Aperel.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Zivie |first1=A. |date=1982 |title=Tombes rupestres de la falaise du Bubasteion à Saqqarah. Campagne 1980–1981. Mission archéologique française à Saqqarah |journal=Annales du Service des Antiquités de l'Égypte |issue=68 |pages=63–69}}</ref> Another 184 cat mummies were found in a different part of this tomb in the 1990s, comprising 11 packets with a few cat bones and 84 packets containing mud, clay and pebbles. Radiographic examination showed that mostly young cats were mummified; most cats died of skull fractures and had dislocated [[Biology:Vertebral column|spinal]] bones, indicating that they were beaten to death. In this site, the tomb of Tutankhamun's wet nurse Maia was discovered in 1996, which contained cat mummies next to human mummies.<ref name="Zivie2005" /> In 2001, the skeleton of a male lion was found in this tomb that also showed signs of mummification.<ref>{{cite journal |title=A lion found in the Egyptian tomb of Maïa |last1=Callou |first1=C. |last2=Samzun |first2=A. |last3=Zivie |first3=A. |journal=Nature |date=2004 |volume=427 |issue=6971 |pages=211–212 |doi=10.1038/427211a|pmid=14724625 |s2cid=4422033}}</ref> It was about nine years old, probably lived in captivity for many years and showed signs of malnutrition. It had probably lived and died in the [[History:Ptolemaic Kingdom|Ptolemaic]] period.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Le lion du Bubasteion à Saqqara (Égypte) |last1=Samzun |first1=A. |last2=Hennet |first2=P. |last3=Lichtenberg |first3=R. |last4=Callou |first4=C. |last5=Zivie |first5=A. |journal=Anthropozoologica |date=2011 |volume=46 |issue=2 |pages=63–84 |doi=10.5252/az2011n2a4|s2cid=129186181 |url= https://hal-mnhn.archives-ouvertes.fr/mnhn-02103375/file/az2011n2a4.pdf}}</ref> Mummified remains of 335 domestic and 29 jungle cats were excavated in the catacombs of [[Unsolved:Anubis|Anubis]] at Saqqara during works started in 2009.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Nicholson |first1=P. T. |last2=Ikram |first2=Salima |last3=Mills |first3=S. F. |date=2015 |title=The Catacombs of Anubis at North Saqqara |journal=Antiquity |volume=89 |issue=345 |pages=645–661 |doi=10.15184/aqy.2014.53 |s2cid=53539966 |url= http://orca.cf.ac.uk/74282/1/The%20Catacombs%20of%20Anubis%20At%20North%20Saqqara%20REVISED%2022-7-2014a.pdf}}</ref>

== Legends ==
In the 2nd century, Polyaenus accounted of a stratagem allegedly deployed by the Persian king Cambyses II during the Battle of Pelusium (525 BC): Cambyses II ordered placing of cats and other animals venerated by Egyptians before the Persian front lines. Egyptians purportedly stopped their defending operations, and the Persians then conquered Pelusium.<ref>{{cite book |last=Shepherd |first=R. |date=1793 |chapter=Book VII: IX. Cambyses |title=Polyænus's Stratagems of War |page=268−269 |publisher=George Nicol |location=London |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=CntaAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA268}}</ref>

== Gallery ==
<gallery mode="packed" heights="140px">
File:Box for animal mummy surmounted by a cat, inscribed MET LC-12 182 27 EGDP023744.jpg|Case for animal mummy surmounted by a cat; Metropolitan Museum of Art
Image:Ancient Egyptian bronze statue of a reclining cat and kitten.jpg|A bronze statue dated to 664−332 BC, exhibited in the Department of Egyptian Antiquities of the Louvre
File:Bastet-E 2533-IMG 0634-gradient.jpg|Cat statue of Bastet in the Louvre
File:WLA brooklynmuseum Sarcophagus for Cat Mummy ca 305 BCE-1st century CE.jpg|Sarcophagus for cat mummy, ca 305 BC; Brooklyn Museum
Image:A guide to the third and fourth Egyptian rooms - predynastic antiquites, mummied birds and animals, portrait statues, figures of gods, tools, implements and weapons, scarabs, amulets, jewellery, and (14771092033).jpg|Mummified cats in the [[Biology:Natural History Museum, London|Natural History Museum, London]] 
File:Late ancient Egyptian bronze statuette of a mother cat nursing her kittens, dating c. 664 – c. 332 BCE, Eskenazi Museum of Art.jpg|Late Egyptian bronze statuette of a mother cat nursing her kittens, dating c. 664 – c. 332 BC, Eskenazi Museum of Art
File:British Museum Egypt 101-black.jpg|The Gayer-Anderson cat; British Museum
Image:Cat_figurine_MET_vs26.7.902x.jpg|Blue [[Engineering:Egyptian faience|Egyptian faience]] cat figurine dated to 1981−1802 BC
</gallery>

==See also==
* Islam and cats
* Cultural depictions of cats
* [[Religion:Animal worship|Animal worship]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{cite web |title=Divine Felines: Cats of Ancient Egypt |url= http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/divine_felines/ |work=Museum Exhibition |publisher=Brooklyn Museum |access-date=15 April 2014}}
* {{cite web |title=Distribution of Water |work=Translation of Sahih Bukhari, Book 40 |via=University of Southern California Center for Muslim–Jewish Engagement |url= http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/engagement/resources/texts/muslim/hadith/bukhari/040.sbt.html |archive-date=9 March 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110309200330/http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/engagement/resources/texts/muslim/hadith/bukhari/040.sbt.html}}
* {{cite web |title=Cats and Islam |url= http://muslimmedianetwork.com/mmn/?p=3207 |work=The Muslim Observer |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://archive.today/20120711002321/http://muslimmedianetwork.com/mmn/?p=3207 |archive-date=11 July 2012}}

{{Cat nav}}

[[Category:Cats|Ancient Egypt]]

{{Sourceattribution|Cats in ancient Egypt}}