Cats in Ancient Egypt

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        The Ancient Egyptians domesticated a large variety of animals; from everyday cattle to exotic creatures such as the peregrine falcon and the Egyptian mongoose.  These animals were important to many aspects of everyday life in Ancient Egypt, from religious beliefs that the animals were associated with to their economic value and the companionship they provided.  Cats are one of the many domesticated animals worth noting; they played an important role which helped define Ancient Egypt. Cats did more than just keep the vermin population under control, they were also a symbol of feminism and sacred connotations due to their connections to the Sun God Ra and the War Goddess Bastet.

        The “Miaw”, onomatopoeic word used by Ancient Egyptians to refer to cats, originated from the “Felis chaus” or the jungle cat.  During the pre-dynastic era in Ancient Egypt, three different species of cats existed, the lynx, the swamp or jungle cats and the African wild cat.  The jungle cats were largest and the heaviest.  The name “Felis Chaus” is derived from the Coptic word “shau” which means tomcat.  The jungle cats roamed the marshes and swamplands in the northern Nile Valley.  These cats were had long legs but a relatively short tail and weighed around 3.5 – 6.5kgs.  There are no hieroglyphics or tomb paintings found which indicated that the Egyptians differentiated from the wild cats and the domestic cats.  Osteological examinations help Egyptologists today determine the age, sex and species of cats, but the skeletal remains don’t shed much light on whether the cats were wild, tamed or domesticated.  Examinations revealed that the majority of the mummified cats recovered from the earliest dynasty were found to be surprisingly larger than the general wild cats.  Among the mummies, a few of the “serval cats” were found, but it is unclear if these exotic cats were native to Egypt or if they had been imported from the south.  Furthermore, cross-breeding in Ancient Egypt indicate that semi-domesticated and semi-wild cats must have existed.  In an ancient story from 332 BC, the infatuated protagonist agrees with the prophet of the daughter of the goddess Bastet that his children’s bodies should be thrown out of the window to be eaten by the cats roaming outside.  This suggests that cats were scavenger animals.  Representations of the wild cats were missing from most reliefs and paintings in Egyptian tombs and temples during the third millennium.  Although there is no definite explanation for this, one speculated theory is that “The ichneumon and genet were a more common sight in the papyrus thickets along the Nile banks at that time and that the tightly controlled repertory did not provide sufficient opportunities for the inclusion of cats,” (Malek, 44).  There weren’t enough desert scenes in the Old-Kingdom to identify cats either.  In the 2nd millennium, tomb paintings at Beni Hasan from 1900 BC display several small, native, wild cats.  More cat representations were found in later tombs, showing almost domesticated jungle cats.

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        Ancient Egypt was an Agrarian society and the large amounts of grain attracted many kinds of rodents.  Cats earned the respect of the Egyptians by controlling these pests.  Over time, the relationship between them and the cats grew into a mutual bond.  The cats destroyed the rats and mice; in return the Egyptians fed and sheltered them.

The earliest evidence of the relationship between cats and Egyptians extends to early pre-dynastic periods in the villages Al-Badari and Al-Mustangidda of Ancient Egypt.  The Mastabas in these villages had cats buried along with the Egyptians.  The painting from the tomb-chapel of a ...

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