Cats hold a special place in the art and culture of ancient Egypt. From depictions of fierce lionesses to beloved domestic companions, felines were admired for their dual nature, combining grace and nurturing with strength and danger. This reverence led to the creation of numerous cat statues, reflecting the animal's importance in both daily life and religious practices.
Statuette of Bastet, the cat goddess, from Bubastis, Egypt.
The Dual Nature of Felines in Egyptian Culture
Egyptians encountered lions, panthers, and jungle cats in the wild. Smaller cats lived among humans from early on, hunting vermin in homes and granaries. Through close observation, the Egyptians came to admire felines for their complex, dual nature. Felines combine grace, fecundity and gentle care with aggression, swiftness and danger. Gods ascribed with these qualities were often represented with feline features. But Egyptians did not worship felines.
Bastet: The Feline Goddess
Bastet is probably the best-known feline goddess from Egypt. Initially depicted as a lioness, Bastet assumed the image of a cat or a feline-headed woman in the 2nd millennium BCE. Although she combined both nurturing and violent qualities, her shielding and motherly aspects typically were emphasized. Countless representations of a seated cat, cat-headed goddess or cat with kittens include dedicatory inscriptions addressed to Bastet.
A gilded wooden statuette of a goddess with a leonine head and the body of a woman.
The goddess was usually shown as a cat-headed woman, or in the form of a cat. Her principal cult centre was Bubastis in the Nile Delta. 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 small cat head.
The Gayer-Anderson Cat
The Gayer-Anderson cat is a bronze figure depicting one form of the goddess Bastet. The cat dates from the Late Period of ancient Egypt around 600 BC. It's named after Major Robert Grenville Gayer-Anderson, who donated the statue to the British Museum in 1939. Gayer-Anderson was a keen collector of small Egyptian sculptures, jewellery and pottery. This bronze figure probably comes from a temple. Thousands of bronze figures of gods, in varying sizes and forms, were dedicated in temples throughout Egypt. The donors of the statues hoped to communicate with the gods.
The Gayer-Anderson Cat at the British Museum.
The statue is 42 cm high and 13 cm wide. The sculpture wears a silver protective pectoral and golden earrings and nose ring. The Gayer-Anderson cat is the most famous object of Robert Gayer-Anderson's collection of oriental art. The statue is not as well preserved as it appears. X-rays taken of the sculpture reveal that there are cracks that extend almost completely around the centre of the cat's body, and only an internal system of strengthening prevents the cat's head from falling off.
The repairs to the cat were carried out by Gayer-Anderson, who was a keen restorer of antiquities in the 1930s. The cat was manufactured by the lost-wax casting method, where a wax model is covered with clay and fired in a kiln until the wax flows out, and the hollow mould is refilled with molten metal. In this case the metal was 85% copper, 13% tin, 2% arsenic with a 0.2% trace of lead.
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The statue is a representation of the female cat deity Bastet. The cat wears jewellery and a protective Wadjet amulet. A scarab appears on the head and a winged scarab is shown on the chest. The earrings and nose ring on the statue may not have always belonged to the cat.
Cats in Daily Life and Religion
Cats played a central role in the daily life and religious practices of ancient Egyptians. They kept their humans safe from snakes and scorpions and Egypt’s grain supply safe from rats and mice. Cats even came to represent in animal form some of Egypt’s most important gods.
Cats were praised for killing venomous snakes, rodents and birds that damaged crops, and protecting the Pharaoh since at least the First Dynasty of Egypt. The protective function of cats is indicated in the Book of the Dead, where a cat represents Ra and the benefits of the sun for life on Earth. Cat-shaped decorations used during the New Kingdom of Egypt indicate that the domesticated cat became more popular in daily life.
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 goose or a monkey.
Egyptian Tomb Painting of a Cat.
Read also: Meaning of Egyptian Cat Statues
Mummification of Cats
The first known indication for the mummification of a cat was found in an elaborately carved limestone sarcophagus dated to about 1350 BC. Mummifying animals grew in popularity during the Late Period of ancient Egypt from 664 BC onwards. Millions of cats were mummified in ancient Egypt either to be buried alongside their owner or to be sold to pilgrims devoted to Bastet. Cat mummification in the name of Bastet became an industry because many temples-depending on the whim of pharaonic decree-had to sustain themselves financially on their own. Sometimes a temple might sell a pilgrim a “fake” cat mummy!
Cat cemeteries at the archaeological sites Speos Artemidos, Bubastis, and Saqqara were used for several centuries. 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.
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. 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.
Excavations in the Bubasteum area at Saqqara in the early 1980s yielded 200 cat mummies in the tomb of the Vizier Aperel. Radiographic examination showed that mostly young cats were mummified; most cats died of skull fractures and had dislocated spinal bones, indicating that they were beaten to death.
| Site | Number of Mummies | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Beni Hasan | 200,000+ | Most were cats |
| Saqqara (Tomb of Vizier Aperel) | 200 | Young cats, skull fractures |
| Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon | Hundreds | Excavated by Gaston Maspero |
| Umm El Qa'ab | 17 Skeletons | Early 20th century BC |
The bond between humans and felines in ancient Egypt was profound, and the legacy of this relationship is still visible today through the numerous cat statues and mummies discovered at archaeological sites.
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