Mummy of a cat

From Abydos, Upper Egypt
Roman Period, perhaps 1st century AD

Animals associated with deities were regularly mummified in the later periods of Egyptian history. The main concentration of cat burials was at sites with an association with a feline deity. The cat is associated with the goddess Bastet, whose cult centre was at Bubastis in the Delta, but there were other feline deities elsewhere in Egypt.

This cat was very elaborately wrapped, following a style which is common in the Greek and Roman periods in ancient Egypt. A lot of effort was frequently spent on the wrapping and external appearance, while the remains inside are often incomplete. It seems likely that many cats did not die a natural death; examination at The British Museum has shown many to have been aged less than one year old. Presumably a cull was made periodically in the temple catteries to provide subjects for mummification and sale to the pious.

The purchase and burial of an animal mummy in a specially designed catacomb was seen as a pious act towards the deity represented by the animal.

Unfortunately, many cat cemeteries were plundered before archaeologists could work in them: A shipment of as many as 180,000 mummified cats was brought to Britain at the end of the nineteenth century to be processed into fertiliser.

C.A.R. Andrews, Egyptian mummies (London, The British Museum Press, 1984)

J. Malek, The cat in ancient Egypt (London, The British Museum Press, 1993)