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At the Bubastis temple, some cats were found to have been mummified and buried, many next to their owners. More than 300,000 mummified cats were discovered when Bastet's temple was excavated. Turner and Bateson suggest that the status of the cat was roughly equivalent to that of the cow in modern India. The death of a cat might leave a family ...
When they died, they were embalmed, coffined and buried in cat cemeteries. [19] The domestic cat was regarded as living incarnation of Bastet who protects the household against granivores, whereas the lion-headed deity Sekhmet was worshipped as protector of the pharaohs. [20]
Bastet, the cat goddess, is an example of one such deity. [1] In 1888, an Egyptian farmer digging in the sand near Istabl Antar discovered a mass grave of felines, ancient cats that were mummified and buried in pits at great numbers.
The cat cemetery developed in the second half of the first millennium BC became as important as the cat cemetery at Bubastis. Radiographic investigations showed that the majority of cats were killed at a young age by either strangulation or by violent blows on their skulls. Several examined packets contained only a few cat bones, and others ...
Cats were sacred animals and the goddess Bastet was often depicted in cat form, sometimes taking on the war-like aspect of a lioness. [5]: 220 Killing a cat was absolutely forbidden [3] and the Greek historian Herodotus reports that, whenever a household cat died, the entire family would mourn and shave their eyebrows. [3]
Bubastis was a center of worship for the feline goddess Bastet, sometimes called Bubastis after the city, who the Greeks identified with Artemis. The cat was the sacred and peculiar animal of Bast, who is represented with the head of a cat or a lioness and frequently accompanies the deity Ptah in monumental inscriptions.
Cats in ancient Egypt were represented in social and religious practices of Ancient Egypt for more than 3000 years. Several ancient Egyptian deities were depicted and sculptured with cat-like heads such as Mafdet, Bastet and Sekhmet, representing justice, fertility and power. [11] The deity Mut was also depicted as a cat and in the company of a ...
Statue of Bastet with a lion head Excavations of early Nubian societies also uncovered hints as to how their daily lives greatly influenced their spiritual beliefs. The A Group Culture (ca. 3700-2800 BC) revealed the domestication of animals, agricultural cultivation, elaborate pottery that was polished red and black, and fine amulets ...