Table of Contents
The modern-day domestic cat,
or Felis catus, has a long history of
being associated with man. Its origins
can be traced back to the ancient Egyptians who are believed to have first
domesticated the cat. Through
archaeological research, it has been discovered that there were two cat species
that flourished in the areas of ancient Egypt; according to Salima Ikram
they were wild cats known as Felis chaus
and domestic cats known as Felis
silvestris libyca.[1] This classification of Felis silvestris libyca as a domestic cat is contradicted by Linda
Case in The Cat: Its Behavior, Nutrition,
& Health, where she states that Felis
silvestris lybica[2]
is the African wildcat, and therefore indicates that it is not domesticated.[3] This discrepancy could be attributed to the
difference in time-line terminology, as the Felis
silvestris lybica and the Felis chaus
are members of the same family, and have a common ancestor. For the purposes of this essay, the Felis silvestris lybica will be
recognised as the common cat found in ancient Egypt and as the common progenitor
of the domestic cat, which is in keeping with the currently held academic
viewpoint.[4] Geographic distribution and behaviour coupled
with the historical and archaeological evidence suggests that Felis silvestris lybica was first tamed
and then domesticated, eventually becoming the species called Felis catus, or today’s domestic cat.[5]
The closest example of this
tamed and domesticated cat that the ancient Egyptians enjoyed and eventually
even regarded as sacred would be the Egyptian Mau. Mau is the Egyptian word for cat, and there
are Egyptian artefacts in the Louvre which give the depicted cats the name of
‘mau’, ‘mai’, and ‘maau’, all different spellings of the same word.[6] The Egyptian Mau breed is reputed to have
developed through natural selection as opposed to the more common human
selective breeding for desired traits, near Cairo.[7] The breed confirmation for the Mau is listed
as a cat with a medium-long graceful body, muscular, and possessing hind legs
that are longer than the front ones. The
coat is a medium length with a fine texture and silky appearance, with
distinctive, contrasting spotted markings.
The forehead is barred and has a dark ‘M’ or ‘scarab-beetle’ like mark,
the cheeks possessing two lines that are reminiscent of mascara on a woman, and
the chest being ringed with bands like unto necklaces. Colour is silver, bronze, smoke, or blue,
with green eyes.[8]
2.
Archaeological Evidence
There is no shortage of
archaeological remains and evidence for the existence of the cat in ancient Egypt. There have been many cat necropoleis found in
Bubastis in Lower Egypt, Speos Artemidos in Middle Egypt, and at Memphis to
name a few.[9] These burial structures were used for several
centuries and each one held thousands of cats and a vast number of specimens of
cat mummies and related artefacts contained in museums and private collections
around the world today originate from these locations, usually taken by tomb
robbers.[10] Archaeologically speaking, these necropoleis
would be considered features, which are immobile human-built structures such as
buildings, tombs, and the like.
Examples of artefacts from
ancient Egypt
showcasing the existence of the cat are numerous. One example would be the limestone sarcophagus
of a cat that was dedicated during the Eighteenth Dynasty by Prince Djhutmose.[11] There were certain animal cults, such as the
one for cats, which had prominence and can be shown to perpetuate from the
First Dynasty in Egypt. These cults also had a resurgence of their
importance in the Eighteenth Dynasty under the reign of Amenhotep III, which is
shown by another of Prince Djhutmose’s works; the building of the Serapeum.[12]
In North
Saqqara there are many animal necropoleis which were carved and
constructed specifically for the interment of animal mummies. The cat necropolis is unique in that it
reused the tombs from the New Kingdom that
date to 500 BC.[13] The tomb of Lady Maia, who was the wet-nurse
for Tutankhamun, is very special and unique as shown by its Arabic name, Abwab al-Qutat or ‘The Doors of the
Cats’. It received this name due to the
vast amount of mummified cats that were buried in the pits and tombs flanking
that of Lady Maia and in the summit of the cliff.[14]
Further archaeological
evidence of the existence of the cat in ancient Egypt is provided by way of the
first X-Rays taken of mummified remains in 1896 and published by the German
physicist Carl George Walter Koenig.[15] These X-Rays included those of mummified cat
remains. Then, in the 1980s, Leonard
Ginsburg examined a number of cat skeletons paying particular attention to the
skulls. This was in order to provide a
base line in determining the criteria in distinguishing between wild and
domesticated cats. The measurements of
the cat-mummy bones provided the necessary statistics for this baseline and a
large amount of them came from the tombs around Aper-El.[16]
It should be noted that
there is difficulty in determining the actual species that these mummified cats
belong to for two reasons. The first
reason for this difficulty is that there is a level of respect given to these
mummies from an archaeological standpoint, and as such the mummies are not
unwrapped. Due to this, the actual bones
of the mummy cannot be completely measured and studied. The other reason is that it is very difficult
to accurately identify the species of juvenile animals, which make up a portion
of the cat mummies.[17]
3. Role In Daily Life
The cat was used as a
utility animal by the Egyptians. This
can be attested to by paintings representing sporting scenes in the marshy
valley of the Nile, where cats plunge into the
water to retrieve and carry the game.
One of these paintings is on a tomb at Thebes
and depicts a cat pointing like a dog to the hunted game, and another painting
is in the British
Museum depicting a cat
seizing game and hunting and carrying water-fowl like a retriever. The Egyptians were wonderfully skilful in
training animals. In ancient Egypt, it would
not have been out of place to see a cat retrieve a wild duck which was hunted
in a marsh and carry it back to its master, but if it were to happen today, it
would be regarded as completely miraculous.[18]
It can also be assumed logically that
the cat was used by the Egyptians for its skill in controlling the rodent
population of things such as mice, rats, and other vermin that would have
carried disease and ate the food stores of the towns and cities.
4.
Representations In Art
The cat is represented in
ancient Egypt
in many mediums in both 2D and 3D depictions.
There are examples of carvings, paintings, statues, and mummies
throughout Egypt
of the cat. The first example to be
examined is that of a cats head done in stuccoed wood which is thought to be
part of a coffin.[19] The stucco has begun to flake off over most
of the head, but the parts that remain show clear examples of decorative
paint-work. Also, the carving of the
head is very detailed, proper eye sockets, the heart-shaped nose, the slight
cleft-like separation in the upper lip just below the nose and running into the
mouth-line, and the overall shape of the head are recreated quite accurately.
Another example is a
fragment of a relief taken from the tomb-chapel of the mastaba of the vizier
and chief justice Pehenuka at Saqqara that
used to be part of a desert hunting scene.[20] This figure shows two mating Bubal Hartbeasts
prominently; however to the right on a separate ground line, a small to medium
sized cat is depicted as well and is dated to be from the Fifth Dynasty. This would have also been attached as part of
the same composition as figure 33.
There are also many
instances of a crouching cat being displayed in the centres of Egyptian images,
in bronze, enamel, and earthenware, which have the eye emblem of the sun
engraved on their collars. Even King
Hana’s cat from the eleventh dynasty wore golden earrings.[21] The cat was a prominent feature on the medals
of Bubastis, where the goddess Bast, (also
referred to as Bastet and Bubastis)
was revered. The goddess’s most commonly
depicted form was that of a woman with a cats head, and holding a sistrum,
which was the symbol of creation and harmony.[22] A good example of these sacred relics of
Bastet can be found in the British museum in the form of a small bronze cat
figurine. The figurine shows the cat
wearing a necklace, sitting proudly with an erect head, upright ears, rounded
head and the tail curled around the front feet.[23] These features are also extremely similar
those of the domestic cat and the Mau described earlier in section 1.
The last example to be
examined is also a bronze figure of a seated cat. It comes from Saqqara in Egypt’s Late Period, and is known as the
Gayer-Anderson Cat because of its donor to the British Museum. The cat is depicted as wearing a necklace
with the eye of Ra hanging from it, and also has pierced ears and nose, with
rings in the piercings. Further to the
eye of Ra on the cat, it also has the falcon of Horus on the breast, and a
scarab on the forehead. This could
potentially be a representation of the scarab-like markings that are found on
the Egyptian Mau which would provide further support that the Mau is the
ancient cat depicted in Egypt,
or the scarab could be religious in nature.[24]
5. References In
Texts
Even though the cat appears all over ancient Egyptian artefacts and in
hieroglyphs on ancient buildings, references specifically to the Egyptian cat
in ancient myths, stories, fables, and other texts are hard to come by. One example recorded was by Horapollo, a
Greek that visited Egypt. His account was cited by Champfleury saying
that the cat was worshipped in the temple
of Heliopolis which was
sacred to the sun because the size of the pupil of the animal’s eye is
regulated by the height of the sun above the horizon. Due to this, the Egyptians used the cat’s eye
as a symbol of what they called the marvellous orb of day.[25]
Another example of the cat being recorded in text comes from the
inscriptions on the walls of the tombs at Thebes. These inscriptions are actually praises to
the god Ra, separated into seventy-five different phrases. The fifty-sixth phrase states “Praise be to
thee, O Ra, exalted Sekhem; thou art the Great Cat, the avenger of the gods,
and the judge of words, and the president of the sovereign chiefs (or
assessors), and the governor of the holy Circle; thou art indeed the bodies of
the Great Cat”.[26] Through this inscription it is shown that the
cat was very highly regarded in Egypt,
to the point of being thought of as a vessel for deities. The cat held great significance in Egypt to be
included in inscriptions on the tomb walls, and be included and given divine
attributes towards Ra as well.
Plutarch states in his work Isis and Osiris that the image of a
female cat was placed at the top of the sistrum in the city of Bastet as an emblem of the
moon. According to Amyot, “this was on
account of the variety of her fur, and because she is astir at night; and
furthermore, because she bears firstly one kitten at birth, and at the second,
two, at the third, three, and then four, and then five until the seventh time,
so that she bears in all twenty-eight, as many as the moon has days. Now this, perchance, is fabulous, but ‘tis
most true that her eyes do enlarge and grow full at the full moon, and that, on
the contrary, they contract and diminish at the decline of the same.”[27]
There were many sacred animals in Ancient Egyptian culture. These animals enjoyed a status of reverence,
protection, and worship both while alive and in death. When examining these ancient sacred animals,
there is evidence of many that were mummified and buried in vast quantities,
especially during the last centuries of their history, and of these animals it
appears that cats held a very special place with the Egyptians and also were
given great respect. Cats were held
apart from their canine counterparts inasmuch as that cats were viewed with
both love and fear at the same time.
This could be due to the view that cats were regarded as mysterious,
special, and even divine.[28]
Examining the divinity
associated with the cat it is found that the goddess that the cat represented
was named Bastet (alternate forms were also Bast, Pasht, and Bassett, and Bubastis by the Greeks). She was believed to be the daughter of Ra,
and was the goddess of reproduction, fertility, and good health.[29] Bastet was usually represented as a cat, or
as a woman that was wearing a cloak but had the head of a cat, standing erect
and carrying a basket. This basket could
have been a representation or symbol of the fertility that Bastet was goddess
over as well. Bastet was not always a
cat however. When she was initially
represented, she was depicted as either a lioness or a woman with a lioness’s
head.[30]
At the beginning of the
worshiping of the cat, the Egyptians were making the animal sacred as an
intermediary or representation of a deity, rather than assuming that the cat
was in itself a deity. The cat was not
made sacred on any of its own attributes or merits, but on those of the goddess
that it represented; a form of hypostasis for Bastet to make herself manifest
if and when she chose to to the Egyptians.[31] Eventually the entire species of cat was
regarded with a high respect and honour.
The animals that were raised were either sacrificed, mummified and
stored in underground vaults and tombs, offered as a votive gift to the
temples, or sold as a type of protective icon.
As far as the mummified cats are concerned, there is evidence that a
good portion of them had been strangled.
Unlike the case with Graeco-Roman sacrificial animals, these cats from Egypt were not
just sacrificed and discarded, but were given places of honour and respect in
the afterlife by being mummified. This
mummification was a way to preserve the cat forever and goes to further support
the idea that they were regarded as being either divine themselves or being
associated with the divine. As Velde
commented, “this practice is not killing life to destroy it, but to let it
arise from death”.[32]
The cat has been shown to have been a very important and significant part
of the ancient Egyptian culture, especially pertaining to the religious
aspects. From the myriad of cat mummies
that have been discovered and analysed, to the archaeological specimens of
jewellery, statues, tombs, and written records, it is clear that the cat enjoyed
a very honoured position among the animals that were considered divine by the
ancient Egyptians.
Through examination of the scholarly evidence provided, it is the opinion
of this essay that the current cat known as the Egyptian Mau is most likely the
descendant of the cat worshipped as a vessel of Bastet anciently. The markings, size, shape, attitude, and
location found as discussed previously all match with what was recorded
anciently as being the sacred Egyptian cat.
In the future if new technology and techniques are developed for
viewing, measuring, and examining mummies without destroying them or unwrapping
them, it will be easier to assess the exact species of the cats mummified and
compare them to the Mau. There most
likely will be some differences as thousands of years naturally cause
adaptation and evolutionary changes in all species, but again from the
artefacts, ecofacts, features, and physical remains thus far discovered, it is
most likely that the Mau will be found to be the sacred cat of ancient Egypt.
Furthermore, the ancient Egyptians appeared to be quite masterful in
their ability to represent in both two-dimensional and three-dimensional art
the form of the cat accurately. These
depictions ranged from the simple drawing of a cat on tomb walls to the
sculptured statues in bronze complete with a range of religious jewellery. These artefacts were both decorative as well
as religious in nature, and this had an impact on the culture of the Egyptians
by allowing their religious icons to have a presence in their own homes and not
just the sacred temples. Further to just
impacting on their own culture, the Egyptians’ love and respect of the cat
influenced foreign writers and travellers as well, as has been shown previously
with examples of ancient references in text as well as by the fact that Bastet
was translated into Greek as Bubastis.
The fact that the cat represented Bastet, the goddess of fertility,
reproduction, and good health, could explain the sheer volume of religious icons
and cat mummies that were found. These
three attributes would have most likely been among the most important for an
ancient culture, and as such, the most forefront in people’s minds and in turn
the most worshipped. This could account
for why there was an entire city dedicated to Bastet as well. Given this line of reasoning, it would appear
safe to say that the cat, sacred symbol of the goddess Bastet, daughter of Ra,
was a significant part of ancient Egyptian culture, and had a profound
influence on both the ancient Egyptians and their neighbours.
Beckett, R., and
Conloque, G. (2009). Paleoimaging:
Field Applications for Cultural Remains and Artefacts. CRC Press, Boca Raton.
Budge,
E. A. (2003). The
Gods of the Egyptians, Vol. 1 (1904).
Kessinger Publishing Co., Kila.
Case,
L. (2003). The
Cat: Its Behavior, Nutrition and Health.
Iowa State
Press, Ames.
Champfleury,
M. (2005). The Cat
Past and Present. (Trans. Hoey,
C.). The Echo Library, Cirencester.
Gilhus, I. (2006).
“The Religious Value of Animals”, Animals,
Gods, and Humans: Changing Attitudes to Animals in Greek, Roman and Early
Christian Ideas. Routledge, London. Pp. 93-113.
Houlihan, P. (1996).
“The Thrill of the Hunt”, Animal
World of the Pharaohs. Thames and Hudson. Pp. 40-73.
Ikram, S. (2005).
Divine Creatures: Animal Mummies
in Ancient Egypt. The American
University in Cairo
Press, Cairo.
Kalof,
L. (2011). A
Cultural History of Animals in Antiquity.
Berg, Oxford.
Klingender, F. (1971).
“Animal Art in the Ancient Near East”, Animals in Art and Thought to the End of the Middle Ages. Routledge, London.
Pp. 28-59.
Siegal, M. (1997).
The Cornell Book of Cats: The
Comprehensive and Authoritative Medical Reference for Every Cat and Kitten. Cornell
University.
[1]
Ikram, S., Divine Creatures, (Cairo, 2005), p 118
[2]
It would appear that both the ‘lybica’ and ‘libyca’ spellings are recognised as
correct, and which one is used depends on the individual scholar that is
writing at the time.
[3]
Case, L., The Cat: Its Behavior, Nutrition and Health,
(Ames, 2003),
pp 5-6
[4]
Ibid
[5]
Ibid
[6]
Champfleury, M., The Cat Past and Present (Trans. Hoey, C.). (Cirencester, 2005), p 10
[7]
Case, L., The Cat: Behavior, (Ames, 2003), p 27
[8]
Siegal, M., The
Cornell Book of Cats: The Comprehensive and Authoritative Medical Reference for
Every Cat and Kitten. (Cornell
University. 1997), p 29
[9]
Ikram, S., Divine Creatures, (Cairo, 2005), p 106
[10]
Ikram, S., Divine Creatures, (Cairo, 2005), p 107
[11]
Ikram, S., Divine Creatures, (Cairo, 2005), plate 1.4
[12]
Ikram, S., Divine Creatures, (Cairo, 2005), p 7
[13]
Ikram, S., Divine Creatures, (Cairo, 2005), pp 110-111
[14]
Ibid
[15] Beckett, R., & Conloque, G., Paleoimaging: Field Applications for Cultural Remains and Artefacts,
(Boca Raton,
2009), p 22
[16]
Ikram, S., Divine Creatures, (Cairo, 2005), p 112
[17]
Ikram, S., Divine Creatures, (Cairo, 2005), p 118
[18]
Champfleury, M., The Cat Past and Present , (Cirencester,
2005), p 4
[19]
Ikram, S., Divine Creatures, (Cairo, 2005), plate 5.1
[21]
Champfleury, M., The Cat Past and Present , (Cirencester,
2005), pp 5-6
[22]
Ibid
[23]
Klingender, F., “Animal Art
in the Ancient Near East”, Animals in Art
and Thought to the End of the Middle Ages, (London, 1971), p 33, figure 24
[24]
Kalof, L., A Cultural History of Animals in Antiquity,
(Oxford,
2011), p 83
[25]
Champfleury, M., The Cat Past and Present , (Cirencester,
2005), p 7
[26] Budge, E. A., The
Gods of the Egyptians, Vol. 1 (1904), (Kila, 2003), p 345
[27]
Champfleury, M., The Cat Past and Present , (Cirencester,
2005), pp 7-8
[28]
Ikram, S., Divine Creatures, (Cairo, 2005), p 106
[29]
Case, L., The Cat: Behavior, (Ames, 2003), p 8
[30]
Ikram, S., Divine Creatures, (Cairo, 2005), p 110
[31]
Ikram, S., Divine Creatures, (Cairo, 2005), p 106
[32]
Gilhus, I., “The Religious
Value of Animals”, Animals, Gods, and
Humans: Changing Attitudes to Animals in Greek, Roman and Early Christian
Ideas, (London,
2006), pp 96-97
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