Cat Mummy

Cats occupied a special place even among the sacred animals of ancient Egypt: in the Late Period, all specimens of the species were considered sacred. Although the first cat mummies were made at the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty of the New Kingdom (ca. 1400–1350 BC), the practice of regular and mass mummification of cats only emerged in the seventh century BC (Twenty-Sixth Dynasty). The first cat cemetery was established in Bubastis in Lower Egypt, the main cult centre of the cat goddess Bastet, and then in later centuries new cat cemeteries were established in Beni Hassan in Upper Egypt and Saqqara, in the central part of the Memphite necropolis. The heyday of these cemeteries can be traced back to the Greco-Roman Period (end of the 4th century BC – 2nd century AD) when among the many categories of animal cemeteries, the burial place for cats was called Bubasteion. During archaeological excavations, millions of cat mummies were found in different parts of the country.
This museum specimen was an adult animal. The body was wrapped with narrow linen strips after the mummification process. The mummy wraps usually follow a geometric pattern. The cat’s head was wrapped in canvas and the contour lines of the face were accentuated by paint to create a vivid appearance.