These mummified cats come from Roman Egypt dating to the year 30 BCE. The Egyptians were masters at the art of mummification, which was practised in humans, birds, cats, crocodiles, and more. These cats are wrapped in painted linen forming geometric patterns. To achieve more detail in the face buttons of coarse linen were applied to the eyes, and a linen thread, emphasized by a dark paint, was applied to the mouth and the whiskers.
As it’s well known, cats in Ancient Egypt were sacred animals, to the point that it was prohibited to take cats from Egypt: if during a military campaign a cat was seen outside Egypt, they would (try to) capture and bring them back, as Diodorus Siculus tells us (Bibliotheca Historica, 1. 84. 1 – 3). Cats and Egyptians have had a very close relationship, they kept and keep rodent infestations away, and they make us happy.
In the ancient city of Berenice (Egypt), a large cat cemetery was identified, with more than 100 cats buried, many using collars. In others were detected physical disabilities, indicating that those cats were kept alive by human aid. In another case in a tomb in Abydos (Baldwin, 1975), was identified 17 cat skeletons with afterlife provisions: little bowls with milk.
If you intentionally killed any sacred animal in Ancient Egypt you would be sentenced to death. But, if you even unintentionally killed a cat or an ibis, you would also be sentenced to die.
Recommended book: “Classical Cats: The Rise and Fall of the Sacred Cat” by Donald Engels (1999)
Photo from © The Trustees of the British Museum
BALDWIN, James (1975) – Notes and Speculations on the Domestication of the Cat in Egypt. In
Anthropos 70, (3/4), pp. 428 – 448
The 21st Century Archaeology 