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Field Museum of Natural History bulletin.

Chicago,Field Museum of Natural History,[1930]-c1990.
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/2853

v. 61:1-3 (1990): https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/25558

Article/Chapter Title: The Cat and Ancient Egypt

Author(s): Frank J. Yurko
Subject(s): mammals, cat, Ancient Egypt, domestication, snakes, pest
control
Page(s): Page 15, Page 16, Page 17, Page 18, Page 19, Page 20, Page
21, Page 22, Page 23

Holding Institution: University Library, University of Illinois Urbana

Champaign
Sponsored by: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

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[Begin Page: Page 15]

The Cat and Ancient Egypt

by Frank J. Yurco, Egypt Consultant

) . The "Great Cat " (right) among the 75 other manifestations of the sun-god. Re:

tomb of Pharaoh Siptah. Valley of the Kings, Thebes. Egypt: Dynasty XIX. F.J.

Yurco photo.

The domestic cat, Felis siivestris familiaris (or man-

iculata), is a relative latecomer among the various

domesticated animals associated with human-

kind. Representations of it won't be found in the cave

and rock paintings of prehistoric Africa and Europe,

nor does it appear for certain among the domesticated

animals of the early Neolithic period in the Middle

East. It is in ancient Egypt that the pictorial and in-

scriptional evidence first comes together to make cer-

tain that the domesticated cat is present; and indeed,

in Egypt the cat attained a very lofty status, becoming

associated with divinity in the personae of the goddess

Bastet and in one manifestation of the solar deity.

Small catlike carnivores like Felis silvestris libyca

proliferated in the North African environment of

ancient times. ' The Sahara has passed through cycles of

dry and wet periods within recent geological time (the

last 12,000 years), and during the arid periods such

large carnivores as lions and leopards could not sustain

themselves in that environment. Their niche was

occupied by smaller carnivores, including jackals,

hyenas, wild dogs, and, among felines, by several possi-

ble ancestors of the domestic cat. In the wild state, the

small felines like the cat focus their hunting on small

animals, birds, reptiles, and occasionally insects. As

this group of prey includes rats and mice, such small

felines had a natural inclination to associate with hu-

mans, especially once humans began the large-scale

storage of foods, cereal grains in particular.

Grain storage bins were appealing to small ro-

dents, including rats and mice, and these were in-

cluded among the regularly hunted prey of the small

felines. This may well be how the ancestors of the

domestic cat were drawn first to associate with humans.

Grain storage on a large scale first appeared among the

ancient Egyptians of the late Predynastic era, the

Sumerians in Mesopotamia, and the peoples of the In-

dus Valley and China. All these civiliations produced

grains on a large scale (wheat, barley, or rice) and had

occasion to store surpluses, for export, or as a reserve

against years of famine. It is in those civilizations,

then, that the ancestors of the domestic cat likely

would appear first. Indeed, at Hagilar and Jericho, sites

in what are now southwestern Turkey and northern

Israel, respectively, bones of small felines have been

found among the remnants of early farming villages of

the 6th and 5th millennia B.C.;- but whether these

bones represent domesticated ancestors of the cat is un-

certain. Likewise, bones of catlike felines have been

found at Egyptian Predynastic sites (5000-3100 B.C.);'

but again, lacking pictorial or incriptional evidence, it

is not certain which of the small feline carnivores these

remains represent.

It is in Egypt that the pictorial and inscriptional

archive for the domestic cat eventually becomes quite

well documented. In the language of ancient Egypt,

15

[Begin Page: Page 16]

2 Cat. as bailiff, brings bad boy before mouse judge: Oriental Institute limestone ostracon. painted, no. 13951; Deir
el-Medinati, Egypt:

Dynasty XIX-XX. Oriental Institute ptioto-

the word for cat is d S Ja Js5 miw, "meow, " with a pic-

ture of a seated cat as determinative, or word classifier.*

The earUest dated literary references are from the Mid-

dle Kingdom {ca. 2040- 1 786 B.C. ) , in the earlier part of

the period." Earlier pictorial representations do occur,

hut they are somewhat ambiguous. Small felines, or

felinelike animals are represented on Early Dynastic

(ca. 3100-2770 B.C.) objects." The problem lies in that

these depictions are not labelled miw, or are so frag-

mentary that establishing just what feline is involved is

difficult. Add to this situation the fact that the ancient

Egyptians venerated a variety of felines ranging from

lionesses to leopards and panthers, as well as smaller

felines, and the complexity of the evidence becomes

understandable.

With the coming of the Middle Kingdom period,

the mystery begins to clear up. In this period, as seen

above, inscriptions certainly refer to the miw, and the

pictorial references make it certain that the domestic

cat is present beyond doubt.* Once attested, the cat

speedily made itself well adjusted to Egyptian culture.

Besides becoming a cherished pet, it was a relentless

mouser, helping to protect granaries and other food

1 6 storehouses; and further, its daring in challenging ser-

pents won for it much additional veneration.

The ancient Egyptians recognized divinity in

many aspects,'* and various felines found themselves in-

cluded in this development. Very early in pharaonic

history, one such feline was recognized by the name

Mafdet. ''' She is represented on a vase fragment, on a

mud jar-sealing, and on the royal kinglist known as the

Palermo Stone; usually she is shown in full feline form

scampering up the pole of an execution device." This

depiction linked Mafdet with the execution of evil-

doers, and in this guise she became popular in Old

Kingdom religious cult. She was also known for bat-

tling serpents, and this won her great respect. Schol-

arly opinion is divided on whether Mafdet should be

seen as the domestic cat, '- as some other feline, " or as a

mongoose. '*

In favor of the domestic cat. Sir Alan Gardiner

recounted an incident at Abydos, where a cat belong-

ing to two English scholars working there in the 1930s,

killed homed vipers, a very deadly type of serpent, by

pouncing on them, holding them down with its claws,

then biting them. " From my own experience in Egypt,

I recall a domestic cat confronting, although not

attacking, a cobra. Likewise, in religious texts the

[Begin Page: Page 17]

3. Statue of Sektimet. biack granite: Temple of Mut. Karnak, Egypt:

Dynasty XVI 1 1^ F. J. Yurcoptioto.

ancient Egyptians recognized this serpent-killing abil-

ity of the cat. Both in the funerary papyri known as

Books of the Dead (chapter 17) and in tomb paintings of

the New Kingdom Period {ca. 1570-1080 B.C.), a tom-

cat, titled as "the Great Cat who dwells in Heliopolis,"

is depicted and described as cutting off the head of the

dangerous serpent, Apophis, entwined around a Persea

tree. '* This tomcat, whether the short-tailed jungle cat

or the domestic cat, usually is shown with a spotted

coat and ringed legs and tail; he was so venerated that

one of the 76 manifestations of the sun-god was repre-

sented as a tomcat (fig. 1 ). The ability of modern Egyp-

tian cats to tackle vipers or other serpents lends support

to the idea that the Great Tomcat of Heliopolis was

indeed a domestic tomcat. " This aspect of the cat — the

ability to tackle serpents — assured its status in Egypt,

for while a cat that is a good mouser is both useful and

desireable, a cat that takes on serpents can be, abso-

lutely, a lifesaver.

In the New Kingdom period and later, the domes-

tic cat achieved widespread popularity. Frequently the

subject of tomb paintings, it is shown in hunting scenes

helping catch marsh birds from its owner's papyrus

skiff, " or else sitting or lying down under the chair of

the lady of the house. " Its position as a cherished pet is

well attested. A son of Pharaoh Amenhotep III (1386-

1348 B.C.), Prince Thutmose, was so attached to his

cat that when she died he had her embalmed and fitted

out with a small sarcophagus (now in the Cairo

Museum), complete with reliefs showing the cat and

funerary texts. ^° She is called "The Osiris, Ta-Mit," the

kitty's name evidently being simply the feminine form

oimiw. At the head and foot of the sarcophagus, she is

under the protection of Isis and Nephthys, so that just

like a human, she was envisioned as gaining eternal life

through Osiris. The prince included his own titles and

name, so we learn that he was the elder brother of the

4. Head, from Sektimet statue, black granite: Field Museum

no. 31720: from Mut Temple. Karnak. Egypt: Dynasty XVIII. Dave

Walsten photo.

prince who later became Pharaoh Amenhotep IV

(Akhenaten); he was High Priest of Ptah, stationed in

Memphis, and also crown prince and royal heir, but

evidently predeceased his own father, Amenhotep III.

Most painted depictions of cats in the New King-

dom show them with brown tabby markings, in various

attitudes and modes of behavior familiar to anyone

owning a domestic cat. More and more in this period,

the domestic cat was identified with Bastet, and it even

entered into literature and humor. On one papyrus,

cats are shown acting as servants at a mouse-king's

court. ^' They carry baby mice wrapped in swaddling

clothes and serve their mouse masters in various ways. \ 7

[Begin Page: Page 18]

18

5. Miyisis, or Mahes, son of Bastet, bronze figures: cats. 30282 (left)

and 30283: Late Period: negs. 8067, 8069.

Another satirical and humorous papyrus in Turin, Ita-

ly, shows cats defending a fortress under attack by a

pharaoh-mouse in a chariot drawn by dogs. " In another

scene on this papyrus, and on another in the British

Museum, cats act as shepherds herding a flock of

geese." At the Oriental Institute in Chicago, a lime-

stone ostracon (fig. 2) shows a cat acting as bailiff who

brings a miscreant boy into court before a mouse acting

as judge. All of this suggests that the cat had secured for

itself a familiar and comfortable niche in the milieu of

ancient Egypt.

In the Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom peri-

ods the domestic cat became more firmly associated

with the feline deity, Bastet, mistress of Bubastis. Bas-

tet was originally a lioness, with a cult center also at

Heliopolis, where she was "daughter of Atum," and at

times she was identified with Tefnut. ^^ The existence of

other feline deities, such as Sekhmet (figs. 3, 4) of

Memphis, and Pakhet of the Beni Hasan area in Mid-

dle Egypt, gave her entrance to cults in those areas,

when she was identified with the resident felines. Both

Pyramid Texts and a Middle Kingdom hymn associate

Bastet with the crown and make her a protectress of the

king and of the Two Lands (Egypt) . " Clearly, the feroc-

ity of the lioness was stressed in Bastet in these aspects.

In the New Kingdom, Pharaoh Ramesses IV (1151-

1145 B.C.) forbade the hunting of lions on the various

feast days of Bastet.^' These associations reinforced the

image of Bastet as an aspect of Sekhmet, and she was

even thought to have given birth to a lion diety,

Miyisis, or Mahes, who became a warrior god, guardian

of pharaoh and of sacred sites (fig. 5), and the one who

mauls the foes of pharaoh (fig. 6)."

Bastet, though, had another nature, as shown by a

text that calls her "ferocious as Sekhmet, and as peace-

ful as the domestic cat."" In these two guises she typi-

fies the ability of Egyptian deities to be manifest in

differing aspects, something seen in almost all the ref-

erences to deities discussed here. The magnificent

bronze figure of Bastet in the Field Museum's collection

(no. 31642) well illustrates these dual aspects (fig. 8).

Majestically seated on a throne, she has the head of a

lioness, but in her right hand she holds an instrument

called a sistrum, and texts on the throne identify her as

Bastet. The sistrum is associated with music-making,

more in keeping with the character of Hathor (fig. 9),

goddess of love, music, dance, and festivity.^'

Increasingly, in the Post-New Kingdom era ( 1080-

664 B.C. ) , Bastet came to be associated with the domes-

tic cat rather than the lioness. A major boost to her

popularity came in Dynasty XXII-XXIII (945-712

B.C.), when pharaohs of Libyan ancestry made Bubas-

tis, home of her principle shrine, their royal city. Large

temples to Bastet were built, and she became a national

ranking deity. Perhaps it was in this period that com-

menced the feasts and pilgrimages, replete with feast-

ing, dancing, and merry-making, that were mentioned

by Herodotus, the Greek historian, who visited Egypt

in 448 B.C. '" It was also in this period that vast numbers

of small and medium-sized bronze images of Bastet,

shown either as a female human with a cat's head,

sometimes with kittens standing before her or held in a

basket, or simply shown as a cat, were produced as vo-

tive gifts to the goddess (figs. 9 and 10). These have

been found in areas with shrines devoted to Bastet and

often are inscribed with prayers. The presence of kit-

tens stressed another aspect of Bastet, that of protec-

tress of family and children. That indeed was the

environment in which the domestic cat was often

found.

[Begin Page: Page 19]

wmiy^mmm ^^^^^'^^^^

6. Miyisis as a lion, mauls foes ofpharaoh; wall relief, sandstone; Temple of Kom Ombo, Egypt: Roman Period. F. J.
Yurco ptioto.
By the Late Period (664-332 B.C.) and the sub-

sequent Ptolemaic Era (332-30 B.C.), the sanctity of

Bastet was extended to cover all domestic cats. This is

demonstrated in the now-growing practice of mum-

mifying and burying all dead cats in cemeteries

attached to the various shrines associated with Bastet.

Vast numbers of cats were thusly interred, at Bubastis,

at Memphis (where recently the enormous cemetery

adjacent to Bastet's shrine has been discovered intact

with thousands of mummified cats), and at Beni Hasan

(whence large numbers of mummified cats were

extracted in the 19th century)." Most of the Field

Museum's mummified cats (fig. 11 ) probably came

from the Beni Hasan cemetery. Yet, so numerous were

the cat mummies that all but the finest were unwrapped

summarily. Their linen bandages were exported to the

United States during the American Civil War (1861-

65) to a New England factory that turned them into

linen-based paper." The cat mummies were shipped to

England, where, pulverized, they were used as plant

fertilizer!

Stories from the Ptolemaic era recount how highly

cats were regarded in Egypt. According to Herodotus,

if a house caught fire, the inhabitants rushed in to save

the cats, or ringed it to keep the cats out." Diodorus

Siculus recounts that at Alexandria, when a visiting

Roman dignitary accidently killed a cat in 60-59 B.C.,

an outraged mob gathered and lynched him.^''

If not earlier, then certainly in the Late Period,

domesticated cats spread beyond Egypt to surrounding

Mediterranean lands. Roman period mosaics and mu-

rals depict the cat. The use of cats aboard ships to keep

rats under control no doubt helped Egyptian cats to

spread abroad. So, many European, and by extension

American cats may have some genes derived from the

miiv of ancient Egypt. Indeed, cat fanciers identify one

breed, the Abyssinian, as descended directly fi-om the

cats of ancient Egypt. More certainly, the current

19

[Begin Page: Page 20]

7. Above: ha:r,or p,a,.::g Castanet,

column relief, sandstone: Temple

ofDendera. Egypt: Roman Period.

W. J. Mumane photo.

8. Lett: Bastet enthroned, with

lioness or panther head, bronze: cat.

31642: perhaps Dynasty XXVI: neg.

108334 Dave Walsten photo.

20

[Begin Page: Page 21]

9. Bastet as a cat, bronze with gold, silver, and copper details: cat. 30286; perhaps Dynasty XXVI; neg. 1 1 1081.
Photo by Ron Testa and 21

Diane Alexander White.

[Begin Page: Page 22]

1 1. Cat mummies: cats. 1 1 1503 and 1 1 1512: Ptolemaic Period: neg

71309.

22

10. Left: Bastet as cat-tieaded female, bronze: cat. 30287: Late

Period: neg. 8068. Right: Cat with kittens, votive to Bastet, bronze:

cat 30285: Late Period: neg 1358.

fascination with the domestic cat mirrors that of

ancient Egypt. "

The tameability of small felines makes it difficult

to assess the question of who first domesticated the cat.

Was it in one locale or in several, for small felines fill an

ecological niche worldwide? Egyptian paintings and re-

liefs of the New Kingdom Period show us cats on board

ships, and Egyptian ships were plying the Mediterra-

nean and Red Seas from the Old Kingdom period (fig.

12) and probably earlier. The bones and statuette

found at Hacilar and Jericho might argue for multiple

domestication places, but the bones found in Predynas-

tic Egyptian sites, and the presence of Felis libyca on the

prehistoric Sahara make certain that Egypt was one of

the domestication sites also. The Abyssinian breed de-

rives from Felis libyca, and it is found in modem Egypt

alongside more common varieties. In the Ptolemaic

Period and later (after 118 B.C.), Egyptian ships sailed

to India and the Far East for trade; did the miw accom-

pany them on those voyages? Probably, but there are

again small felines indigenous to the Far East that may

have been independently domesticated.

Certainly, in Egypt proper domestic cats never

lost their popularity. Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic

Egypt all document their presence, and today they

occur in every Egyptian city, town, and village. No

doubt the continued presence of mice, rats, and ser-

pents, and the cat's ability to tackle them all, assured

its place even after the worship of Bastet waned with

the spread of Christianity. FM

[Begin Page: Page 23]

12. Egyptian ships arriving from

Syria, wail reiief, iimestone;

causeway of Unas Pyramid complex.

Saqqara, Egypt: Dynasty V.

F. J. Yurco photo.

»? »

mUtm

Footnotes

1 . Banks, Kimball M. Climates. Cultures, and Cattle: The

Holocene Archaeology of the Eastern Sahara (Dallas: Dept. of

Anthropology, Southern Methodist Univ., 1984), pp. 16, 51 (table

111:1), 119, 164 (table V:9), and 232-233.

2. Petzsch, Hans. "Zur Problematik der Primardomestikation der

Hauskatze {Felis Silvestris 'Familiaris')." in Janos Matolcsi, ed.,

Domestikationforschung und Geschichte der Haustiere (Budapest:

Akademiai Kiado, 1973), pp. 109-113; Heick, Wolfgang, "Katze," in

Lexikon der Agyptologie. Band III (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz,

1978), pp. 367-369. The Hagilar find included a statuette of a

woman playing with a cat.

3. Brunton, G., and G. Caton-Thompson. The Badarian Civiliza-

tion {London . British School of Archaeology, 1928), p. 94; Janssen,

Jacques and Rosalind. Egypt.an Household Animals. Shire Egyptol-

ogy, vol. 12 (Princes RIsborough: Shire Publications, 1989), pp. 14-

19.

4. Erman, Adolf and Hermann Grapow. Worterbuch der Agyp-

tischen Sprache. Vol 11 (Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs'sche Buchhandiung,

1928), p. 42.

5. Ibid, including the feminine form, Ta-Mit. "Kitty" used as a per-

sonal name for a woman in Dynasty XI; see too Neville Langton,

"Cats in Egypt," The Antiquarian Ouarterly\. no, 3 (September,

1925) 69; and Paul Remecki, "A Cat in Bronze," Field /Museum of

Natural History Bulletin 46. no. 6 (June, 1975) 8-13.

6. Petrie, William M. F. The Royal Tombs of the First Dynasty, Part

I (London; Egypt Exploration Fund, 1900), p. 20, and pi. VII, no. 4;

pi. XXXII, no. 39; Petrie, William M. F, The Royal Tombs of the Earli-

est Dynasties. Part II (London: Egypt Exploration Fund, 1901) p. 25,

nos. 7 and 10, pi. VII, nos. 7 and 10.

7. The feline is identified, in fact, as Mafdet; see Lurker, Manfred.

The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Egypt {London: Thames and

Hudson, 1980), p. 78, and figure at lower left. Opinions vary about

whether the domestic cat is involved here.

8. Besides Langton's article and the Worterbuch citation (notes 4

and 5 above), see William C. Hayes. The Scepter of Egypt. Vol I

(New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1953), pp. 223-224, and fig.

1 40 (lower right); see too Jacques and Rosalind Janssen, Egyptian

Household Animals, p. 16 (referring to an Xlth Dynasty representa-

tion of a tomcat crouching under a chair, on a stela in the Petrie

Museum, University College, London).

9. Hornung, Erik. Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt, trans-

lated by John Baines (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982),

pp. 109-125,

1 0. See notes 6 and 7 above.

1 1 . Lurker, The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Egypt, p. 78, figure

at lower left.

12. So, Gardiner, Alan H., "The Mansion of Life and Master of

King's Largess," Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 24 (1938) 89-90.

13. For instance, Lurker, The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Egypt.

p. 76, considers Mafdet as a leopard.

1 4. Gardiner, 89, "The Mansion of Life and Master of King's

Largess, ' surveying the various opinions.

15. Ibid, 89-90.

1 6. Lurker, The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Egypt, p. 38, figure

at lower left.

1 7. The Egyptians themselves called him miw '3 "Great (Tom)

Cat," see for instance, LiseManniche. Crty o/ f/ie Dead.- Thebes in

Egypt (London: British Museum Publications, 1987), p. 64, fig. 51 ;

Hornung, Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt, p. 120, fig. 12.

18. Manniche, C/fyo/^he Dead, p. 36, fig. 28 (where the cat paws

its owner in a manner familiar to all cat owners); also James, T.G.H.

Egyptian Painting in the British IVIuseum (London: British Museum,

1985), p. 27 fig. 25.

19. For instance, Jacques and Rosalind Janssen, Egyptian House-

hold Animals, p. 15, fig. 8.

20. Corteggiani, Jean Pierre. The Egypt of the Pharaohs at the

Cairo r^useum {Par\s: Hachette Blue Guides, 1986), no. 58, pp. 99-

100, pi. on p. 100. Amenhotep Ill's family may have been cat lovers,

see Desroches-Noblecourt, Christiane. Tutankhamen: Life and

Death of a Pharaoh (New York; New York Graphic Society, 1963),

p. 118, fig. 59, where the prince's mother. Queen Tiy, is shown sitting

with a cat underneath her chair.

21 . See Omiin, Josef A. Der Papyrus 55001 und seine Satirisch-

Erotischen Zeichnungen und Inschriften. Catalogo del Museo

Egizio di Torino. Serie Prima-Monumenti e Testi, Vol. Ill (Torino:

Edizioni d'Arte Fratelli Pozzo, 1971 ), pi. XXb.

22. Ibid. pp. 30-31 , pi. XI, X -I- 11 ; XIII, and XIV.

23. Ibid, p. 30, and pi. XI, x-i-9; XIII, XIV, and XXa.

24. Otto, Eberhard, "Bastet," Lexikon der Agyptologie \, pp. 628-

630; Lurker, The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Egypt, p. 32.

25. Otto. "Bastet," Lexikon der Agyptologie \, pp. 628-630.

26. Ibid.

27.

28.

29.

and 112

30. Herodotus. rA7e/-//stones, translated by Aubrey de Selincourt

(Baltimore; Penguin Books, 1954), pp. 125-126.

31 . Conway, William Martin. Dawn of Art in the Ancient World

(London; Percivaltand Co., 1891), pp. 182-183; Remeczki, "A Cat in

Bronze, " pp. 9-10, and note 9.

32. El-Mahdy. Christine, Mummies. Myth, and Magic {London:

Thames and Hudson, 1989), p. 33.

33. Herodotus, The Histories, p. 128.

34. Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus on Egypt, translated by Edwin

Murphy (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland and Co., 1985), p. 108.

35. Recently cats surpassed dogs as the most widely kept pet in

the United States; see Margaria Fichtner, "Life with a cat," Chicago

Tribune ^ 43. no. 2^ (Jan. 21, 1990) Sect. 15, p. 15.

Lurker, The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Egypt, p. 32.

Otto, "Bastet, " Lexikon der Agyptologie \, p. 629.

Lurker, The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Egypt, pp. 59

23