| Készítés helye | Egypt |
|---|---|
| Készítés ideje | 4st century B.C. – 3rd century A.D. |
| Tárgytípus | organic remains |
| Anyag, technika | Animal mummy wrapped in linen |
| Méret | height: 28 cm |
| Leltári szám | 51.2363 |
| Gyűjtemény | Egyptian Art |
| Kiállítva | Museum of Fine Arts, Basement Floor, Ancient Egypt, Temples and gods |
Cats also occupied a special place even among the sacred animals of ancient Egypt: in the Late Period, all specimens of the species were considered sacred. Although the first cat mummies were made at the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty of the New Kingdom (ca. 1400–1350 BC), the practice of regular and mass mummification of cats only emerged in the seventh century BC (Twenty-Sixth Dynasty). The first cat cemetery was established in Bubastis in Lower Egypt, the main cult centre of the cat goddess Bastet, and then new cat cemeteries were established in Beni Hassan in Upper Egypt and Saqqara, in the central part of the Memphis necropolis. The heyday of these cemeteries can be traced back to the Greco-Roman Period (end of the 4th century BC – 2nd century AD), when among the many categories of animal cemeteries, the burial place for cats was called Bubasteion. Millions of cat mummies have been found during archaeological excavations.
This museum specimen was a young animal. The body was wrapped in linen after the mummification process.
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