NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Cats in Ancient Egypt

Cats (Felis catus) are among the most common pets in the world. In the United States, for example, according to a survey released by the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, feline pets number around 76 million. Even though cats have now overtaken dogs in popularity in the US, and are enormously popular elsewhere, the history of feline domestication is not as well known as that of their canine counterparts. Binomial name Felis catus Linnaeus, 1758 Synonyms Felis lybica invalid junior synonym The cat (or domestic cat, house cat) is a small carnivorous mammal. ... It has been suggested that Residential pets be merged into this article or section. ... Trinomial name Canis lupus familiaris The dog is a mammal in the order Carnivora. ... Dogs and sheep were among the first animals to be domesticated. ...

In 1888, an Egyptian farmer accidentally uncovered a large tomb containing thousands upon thousands of mummified cats and kittens. This discovery, outside the town of Beni Hasan, contained around eighty thousand cat bodies that date back to 1000-2000 BCE. A mask used in the burial of a cat mummy in Ancient Egypt. ... A mask used in the burial of a cat mummy in Ancient Egypt. ... A mummy is a corpse whose skin and dried flesh have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or airlessness. ... Beni Hasan (or Bani Hasan, or also Beni-Hassan) is a village in Middle Egypt about 25 km south of al Minya, on the east bank of the Nile, with remarkable catacombs that have been excavated. ...

Cats in other religions

Feline reverence is not peculiar to Ancient Egyptian civilization. Muslim theology maintains that the prophet Muhammad once found a cat sleeping on his robe; instead of waking it, he cut a hole through his robe so as not to disturb the animal. If held true by scholars, the story teaches caring and mercifulness to all animals, not only cats. This reverence can be found in ancient Indian texts, where records of cats involved with human society can be found in two ancient Indian great epics, the Ramayana and Mahabharata, circa 500 BCE. As the Hindu and Parsee religions respected all forms of life and were especially sympathetic towards cats, all good Hindus were expected to take care of at least one cat during their lives. By contrast, the Islamic culture generally regards dogs as somewhat unhygienic animals. Khafres Pyramid (4th dynasty) and Great Sphinx of Giza (c. ... A Muslim (Arabic: Ù…Ø³Ù„Ù…, Turkish: MÃ¼slÃ¼man, Persian and Urdu: Ù…Ø³Ù„Ù…Ø§Ù†, Bosnian: Musliman) is an adherent of Islam. ... In religion, a prophet (or prophetess) is a person who has directly encountered the divine and serves as an intermediary with humanity. ... For other persons named Muhammad, see Muhammad (name). ... For the television series by Ramanand Sagar, see Ramayan (TV series). ... Manuscript illustration of the Battle of Kurukshetra The (Devanagari: ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, the other being the . ... This article discusses the adherents of Hinduism. ... a person from Pars (the middle-Persian word for Fars), a region now within the geographical boundaries of Iran, and is roughly the original homeland of the Persian people. ... Trinomial name Canis lupus familiaris The dog (Canis lupus familiaris) is a domestic subspecies of the wolf, a mammal of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. ...

Cats in everyday life in Ancient Egypt

The exaltation of cats in Ancient Egypt most likely began with their contribution to agriculture. Feral cats, or "reed cats", naturally preyed upon the rats and other vermin that would otherwise eat from the royal granaries. They earned their place in towns and cities by killing mice, poisonous snakes and other pests. They were worshiped by the Egyptians and given jewelery in their hieroglypics. Granary at Thiruparaithurai, Kumbakonam (old temple town), built around 1600-1634 A granary is a storehouse for threshed grain or animal feed. ... Feral mouse A mouse (plural mice) is a rodent that belongs to one of numerous species of small mammals. ... Families Acrochordidae Aniliidae Anomalepididae Anomochilidae Atractaspididae Boidae Bolyeriidae Colubridae Cylindrophiidae Elapidae Hydrophiidae Leptotyphlopidae Loxocemidae Pythonidae Tropidophiidae Typhlopidae Uropeltidae Viperidae Xenopeltidae Snakes are cold blooded legless reptiles closely related to lizards, which share the order Squamata. ...

The two main breeds of cat native to Egypt were the jungle cat Felis chaus and the African wildcat Felis silvestris lybica. The latter of these was more commonly domesticated, largely due to its temperament. The jungle cat was not nearly as peaceful, and was probably not especially helpful in the initial phases of domestication. Binomial name Felis chaus Schreber, 1777 The Jungle Cat (Felis chaus), also called Swamp Lynx (although not related to the lynxes), is a small cat with a rather short tail (length 70 cm, plus 30 cm tail). ... ...

The African wildcat, the more placid of the two, easily coexisted with the human population who were eager to rid their streets of vermin. In return the cats received protection from humans, in the sense that they would be safe from other predators as long as they remained near human habitats. These two species eventually fused to create a new breed of cat, related to the modern-day Egyptian Mau. The bane of Australian farmers - the wild rabbit Mouse Vermin is a pejorative word given to animals which are considered by users of the word to be pests or nuisances, most associated with the carrying of disease. ... Egyptian Maus are a medium-sized short-haired cat breed. ...

The change in temperament is attributed to two principal factors: heredity and learned tolerance of humans. The changes due to domestication follow a pattern similar to other domesticated animals including wolves (dogs), and cattle. These changes include coloration as there is less need for camouflage in captivity than in the wild, smaller brain size due to the gradual elimination of unnecessary survival instincts, and an overall decrease in size due to the change in diet and habitat. Binomial name Canis lupus Linnaeus, 1758 Wolf redirects here. ... Binomial name Bos taurus Linnaeus, 1758 Cattle (often called cows in vernacular and contemporary usage, or kye as the Scots plural of cou) are domesticated ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. ...

In Cats: The Rise of the Cat, Roger Tabor suggests that the domestication process is due to two possible reasons. Gaining confidence around humans through frequent contact at the granaries, cats began to venture into settlements, attracted by the indigenous bird and vermin population. Breeding within itself, a large population of cats could develop, and would continue on doing so at an exponential rate. Additionally, familiarity with human society was aided by the association of cats with the goddess Bast - Egyptian temple priests would often keep cats at their temple as a representative of the goddess. â€œAvesâ€ redirects here. ... The bane of Australian farmers - the wild rabbit Mouse Vermin is a pejorative word given to animals which are considered by users of the word to be pests or nuisances, most associated with the carrying of disease. ... In Egyptian mythology, Bast (also spelt Ubasti, and Pasht) is an ancient goddess, worshipped at least since the Second Dynasty, for whom the centre of her cult was in Per-Bast (Bubastis in greek), which was named after her. ...

Additionally, in their book Wild Cats of the World, Mel Sundquist and Fiona Sundquist suggest that a likely route to domestication was through the rearing of kittens captured from the wild. Fashionable Egyptian society tamed wild animals of all kinds using this method, including baboons, lions and gazelles in menageries at the most wealthy households. Type species Simia hamadryas Linnaeus, 1758 Species Papio hamadryas Papio papio Papio anubis Papio cynocephalus Papio ursinus The five baboon species are some of the largest non-hominid members of the primate order; only the Mandrill and the Drill are larger. ... Binomial name Panthera leo (Linnaeus, 1758) Distribution of Lions in Africa Synonyms Felis leo (Linnaeus, 1758) The lion (Panthera leo) is a mammal of the family Felidae and one of four big cats in the genus Panthera. ... Species Several, see text A gazelle is an antelope of the genus Gazella. ... Menagerie is the term for a historical form of keeping wild and exotic animals in human captivity and therefore a predecessor of the modern zoological garden. ...

Cats in Egyptian mythology

Egypt was not always unified; initially, it was a land with many regional tribes and nomes. Many names had a totemistic system of religion, centering the worship of an animal as a spiritual symbol. Some peoples would choose a totem animal because of the services it provided, some for admirable qualities, some out of fear. Regardless, when war broke out between peoples, the tribe that won was able to demand more respect for their totem, and mandated its worship. Eventually an empire was formed under Menes circa 3100 BCE, and a more pluralistic form of totemism was established. Ibises, eagles, and beetles were among the totems worshipped alongside cats. http://www. ... The nomes of Ancient Egypt A nome (Greek: district) is a subnational administrative division of Ancient Egypt. ... Totemism (derived from the root -oode in the Ojibwe language, which referred to something kinship-related) is a religious belief that is frequently associated with shamanistic religions. ... Menes was an Egyptian pharaoh of the First dynasty, to some authors the founder of this dynasty, to others the Second. ... In the social sciences, pluralism is a framework of interaction in which groups show sufficient respect and tolerance of each other, that they fruitfully coexist and interact without conflict or assimilation. ... Genera Threskiornis Pseudibis Thaumatibis Geronticus Nipponia Bostrychia Theristicus Cercibis Mesembrinibis Phimosus Eudocimus Plegadis Lophotibis Ibises are a group of long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae. ... Genera Several, see below. ... Suborders Adephaga Archostemata Myxophaga Polyphaga See subgroups of the order Coleoptera Beetles are the most diverse group of insects. ...

The Egyptians viewed their gods not as simple spirits but as intelligences that could be personified in a body. The earliest evidence of cats as deities comes from a 3100 BCE crystal cup decorated with an image of the lion-headed goddess Mafdet. The goddess Bast was originally depicted as a fiercely protective and warlike lion, but as her image "softened" over time she became more strongly associated with domestic cats. In Egyptian mythology, Mafdet (or Maftet) was an early panther-goddess, known as a destroyer of scorpions, snakes and other venomous animals. ... In Egyptian mythology, Bast (also spelt Ubasti, and Pasht) is an ancient goddess, worshipped at least since the Second Dynasty, for whom the centre of her cult was in Per-Bast (Bubastis in greek), which was named after her. ... Binomial name Panthera leo (Linnaeus, 1758) Distribution of Lions in Africa Synonyms Felis leo (Linnaeus, 1758) The lion (Panthera leo) is a mammal of the family Felidae and one of four big cats in the genus Panthera. ...

As cats were sacred to Bast, the practice of mummification was extended to them, and the respect that cats received after death mirrored the respect they were treated with in everyday life. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote that in the event of a fire men would guard the fire to make certain that no cats ran into the flame. Herodotus also wrote that when a cat died, the household would go into mourning as if for a human relative, and would often shave their eyebrows to signify their loss. A mummy is a corpse whose skin and dried flesh have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or airlessness. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Such was the strength of feeling towards cats that killing one, even accidentally, incurred the death penalty. Another Greek historian, Diodorus Siculus, describes an interesting example of swift justice imposed upon the killer of a cat: about 60 BCE, he witnessed the chariot of a Roman soldier accidentally run over an Egyptian cat. An outraged mob gathered and, despite pleas from pharaoh Ptolemy XII, killed the soldier. Diodorus Siculus (c. ... Area under Roman control Roman Republic Roman Empire Western Empire Eastern Empire Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew from a city-state founded on the Italian Peninsula circa the 9th century BC to a massive empire straddling the Mediterranean Sea. ... Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysos Theos Philopator Theos Philadelphos (117 BCE - 51 BCE) was son of Ptolemy IX Soter II. His mother is unknown. ...

Bubastis and the Cult of the Cat

Although the cat cult was a significant religious movement by the birth of the New Kingdom it gained new importance when Shoshenq I developed Bubastis, chief centre of worship for the goddess Bast, located east of the Nile Delta, into an important city. At the same time, Bast developed into an immensely popular and important deity representing fertility, motherhood, protection and the benevolent aspects of the sun - along with Sekhmet, she was known as the Eye of Ra. The cult of the cat garnered a huge following and thousands of pilgrims journeyed each year to Bubastis to celebrate. Bubastis also became another name by which the goddess was known. The New Kingdom is the period in ancient Egyptian history between the 16th century BCE and the 11th century BC, covering the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties of Egypt. ... nomen or birth name Hedjkheperre Setepenre Shoshenq I (Egyptian Å¡Å¡nq), also known as Sheshonk or Sheshonq I (for discussion of the spelling, see Shoshenq), was a Meshwesh Libyan king of Egypt and founder of the Twenty-second Dynasty. ... Bubastis is an Ancient Egyptian city, located along the River Nile in the Delta region of Lower Egypt. ... NASA satellite photograph of the Nile Delta (shown in false colour) The Nile Delta (Arabic:Ø¯Ù„ØªØ§ Ø§Ù„Ù†ÙŠÙ„) is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. ... Two statues of Sekhmet (standing) in the Egyptian Museum of Berlin. ... This article is about the Egyptian god. ...

Close to the centre of the city lay a large temple to Bast. This temple was in a depression which sited it at a lower elevation to the rest of the city, which had been raised to minimize flood damage from the nearby. Of this Herodotus, who visited the city in 450 BCE, wrote that although the size of the shrine to Bast was perhaps 'not as large as those of other cities, and probably not as costly, no temple in all of Egypt gave more pleasure to the eye'.

He went on to describe the temple in detail. A canal within this depression gave the temple the appearance of a man-made island. In the courtyard was a grove of trees leading the way to the interior, which contained a massive statue of Bast - and a great number of sacred cats, cared for by the temple priests with donations from pilgrims. The temple's cat population, while respected, was extremely large and needed to be moderated by the periodic sacrificial culling of kittens, which were then mummified and sold to pilgrims as relics. A relic is an object, especially a piece of the body or a personal item of someone of religious significance, carefully preserved with an air of veneration as a tangible memorial, Relics are an important aspect of Buddhism, some denominations of Christianity, Hinduism, shamanism, and many other personal belief systems. ...

Bubastis became a marketplace for merchants of all sorts; artisans came forth with thousands of bronze sculptures and amulets depicting cats to worshippers of Bast. These amulets commonly featured an image of a cat and its kittens and were often used by women trying to have children, praying to Bast that they be granted the same number of children as kittens depicted on the amulet. Assorted ancient Bronze castings found as part of a cache, probably intended for recycling. ... An amulet from the Black Pullet grimoire An amulet (from Latin amuletum, meaning A means of protection) or a talisman (from Arabic tilasm, ultimately from Greek telesma or from the Greek word talein wich means to initiate into the mysteries. ...

Herodotus wrote that the annual festival of Bast held in the city was the one of the most popular of all, with attendees from all over Egypt, who would raft down the Nile celebrating and feasting all the way. When they arrived in Bubastis, they feasted yet more and made sacrifices to Bast. The Nile (Arabic: â€Ž, translit: , Ancient Egyptian iteru, Coptic piaro or phiaro) is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the longest river, though not the most voluminous, in the world. ... Marcus Aurelius and members of the Imperial family offer sacrifice in gratitude for success against Germanic tribes: contemporary bas-relief, Capitoline Museum, Rome For other uses, see Sacrifice (disambiguation). ...

The famed revelling and commercialism of Bubastis even made its way into Judeo-Christian mythology. In the sixth century BCE, the prophet Ezekiel wrote that "The young men of Aven and of Pibeseth [Bubastis] shall fall by the sword: and these cities shall go into captivity" (Ezekiel 30:17). God revealed to Ezekiel that He would punish these cities, like Nineveh, for their paganism and sin. Image File history File links Wikisource-logo. ... The original Wikisource logo. ... Judeo-Christian (or Judaeo-Christian) is a term used to describe the body of concepts and values which are thought to be held in common by Judaism and Christianity, and typically considered (sometimes along with classical Greco-Roman civilization) a fundamental basis for Western legal codes and moral values. ... For other uses, see Myth. ... Ezekiel the Prophet of the Hebrew Scriptures is depicted on a 1510 Sistine Chapel fresco by Michelangelo. ... , For other uses, see Nineveh (disambiguation). ... Heathen redirects here. ... Sin is a term used mainly in a religious context to describe an act that violates a moral rule or the state of having committed such a violation. ...

By 525 BCE, Egypt was essentially the only empire not conquered by the Persians. At that point Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, set out to do just that. Cambyses and his army crossed the fifty-six mile stretch of desert to the Egyptian outpost of Pelesium on camelback; they then clashed down upon the Egyptian army who were reluctant to strike back at the sacred symbol of the cat upon the Persian shields. The Persian Empire was a series of historical empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the old Persian homeland, and beyond in Western Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus. ... Cambyses (or Cambese) is the Greek version of the name of several monarchs of Achaemenid line of ancient Persia. ... The name Cyrus (or Kourosh in Persian) may refer to: [[Cyrus I of Anshan]], King of Persia around 650 BC [[Cyrus II of Persia | Cyrus the Great]], King of Persia 559 BC - 529 BC â€” See also Cyrus in the Judeo-Christian tradition Cyrus the Younger, brother to the Persian king...

Funerary traditions

Herodotus noted that cats who died anywhere in Egypt were often taken to Bubastis to be mummified and buried in the great cemetery, but this may or may not have been the case. At the burial site in Bubastis the Swiss Egyptologist Édouard Naville found more than 20 m³ (720 cubic feet) of cat remains but also a great deal of evidence of cremation. Naville found stacks of cat bones in many pits, the walls of which were made up of bricks and clay. Near each pit lay a furnace, its bricks blackened from fire. This discovery causes some problems. The mummification and preservation of the body was intended to make it possible for the deceased's ka to locate its host and subsequently be reborn into the afterlife. As the body would have to be intact for this process to occur, cremation would seem an undesirable way of dealing with the body of a sacred creature with a ka. Nevertheless, many cats were afforded the full embalming ceremony and buried in other great cemeteries along the Nile. A mummy is a corpse whose skin and dried flesh have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or airlessness. ... Graves at Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. ... An Egyptologist is any archaeologist, historian, linguist, or art historian who specializes in Egyptology, the scientific study of Ancient Egypt and its antiquities. ... Captaine Henri Ã‰douard Naville (1844-1926) was a Swiss egyptologist. ... The crematorium at Haycombe Cemetery, Bath, England. ... In Egyptian mythology, the human soul is made up of seven parts: the Ren, Sekhem, the Akh, the Ba, the Ka, the Sheut, and the Sekhu. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

In her book The Cult of the Cat, Patricia Dale-Green states that, "The cat's body was placed in a linen sheet and carried amidst bitter lamentations by the bereaved to a sacred house where it was treated with drugs and spices by an embalmer". She goes on to state that although the cat of an Egyptian noble would receive more extravagant burial status, the body of a worker's cat would still be carefully prepared and the embalming carried out with the same conscientiousness as for a human body, often with provisions for the afterlife such as pots of milk and even mummified mice. Torn linen cloth, recovered from the Dead Sea Linen is a material made from the fibers of the flax plant. ...

Nowhere, perhaps, is this appreciation shown more than in the colossal tomb at the temple of Bast discovered in 1888. This tomb, outside of Beni Hasan, held more than nineteen tonnes of animal mummies and remains, the vast majority being cats but a number of mongooses, dogs and foxes were amongst the specimens that made it to the British Museum. The farmer who made the discovery sold most of the tomb's contents to be ground up as fertilizer, but fortunately a number of specimens made it into the hands of scientists for testing and examination. Some of these are on display at the British Museum. Beni Hasan (or Bani Hasan, or also Beni-Hassan) is a village in Middle Egypt about 25 km south of al Minya, on the east bank of the Nile, with remarkable catacombs that have been excavated. ... This article is about the animal. ... The centre of the museum was redeveloped in 2000 to become the Great Court, surrounding the original Reading Room. ...

The sole Egyptologist to visit the site, William Martin Conway, wrote: "The plundering of the cemetery was a sight to see, but one had to stand well windward. The village children came [...] and provided themselves with the most attractive mummies they could find. These they took down the river bank to sell for the smallest coin to passing travelers. The path became strewn with mummy cloth and bits of cats' skulls and bones and fur in horrid positions, and the wind blew the fragments about and carried the stink afar". (quoted in Tabor p26). Sir William Martin Conway (April 12, 1856 - April 19, 1937), English art critic and mountaineer, was the son of Reverend William Conway, afterwards canon of Westminster. ...

Recently, during the making of his documentary for the BBC, Cats: The Rise of the Cat, Roger Tabor discovered a further cat cemetery at Bast's temple. This find consists of a twenty centimetre-thick layer of compressed mummies which spans more than sixty metres in length.

The decline of cat-worship

The cult of Bast was officially banned by imperial decree in 390 AD. Egypt has since experienced a decline in the respect once held for cats and although they are still kept as pets and tolerated elsewhere because they catch pests, the cat has lost all religious significance in modern Egypt.

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