CAT MUMMY

CAT MUMMY

The mummy of a cat wrapped in linen of two different colours in an elaborate, layered pattern. The head has been modelled and painted to resemble the animal. Some cats were mummified in a crouched position and placed in a cat-shaped coffin. The cat cult in honour to the goddess Bastet was particularly popular in the Late Period and the 1st century BC Greek historian, Diodorus Siculus, reported that he saw a Roman lynched in Egypt for accidentally killing a cat.

LATE PERIOD

Loaned to the Museum by the Royal Institution, Colquitt Street, Liverpool.

Piotr Bienkowski and Angela Tooley, "Gifts of The Nile: Ancient Egyptian Arts and Crafts in the Liverpool Museum", 1995, 70; pl. 107.

LIVERPOOL MUSEUM

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