History Cats in Egyptian homes
Cats were useful: they caught the mice and rats that ate stored grain and killed snakes and scorpions. Paintings show pet cats sitting under their owners' chairs and joining bird hunts in the marshes. Some of the earliest known tame cats were buried in a cemetery at Hierakonpolis in southern Egypt around 3700 BC.
The Greek writer Herodotus, who visited Egypt around 450 BC, wrote that when a family cat died, everyone in the house shaved their eyebrows in mourning.
History The goddess Bastet
The goddess Bastet was shown as a cat or as a woman with a cat's head. She protected homes, mothers and children. Her temple was at Bubastis in the Nile Delta, where Herodotus described a huge yearly festival. Bronze cat statues like the one in this picture were given to the goddess as gifts, and great numbers of cats were mummified as offerings to her.
Art In this artwork
This black cat with gold earrings and a gold collar is close to real bronze cat statues, such as the Gayer-Anderson cat in the British Museum, which also wears earrings and a necklace.
Look closer
- Find the earrings and the collar.
- Is the cat sitting, standing or lying down?
Think about it
- Why would a farming country value cats so much?
- What animals do people protect or honor today?
- How do pets help families?
Key words
- Bastet
- An Egyptian goddess shown as a cat.
- Mummy
- A body preserved by drying and wrapping.
- Offering
- A gift given to a god.
Sources
The history on this page is a short summary based on these sources:
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Bastet"
- British Museum, the Gayer-Anderson cat
- Herodotus, Histories, Book 2 (about 430 BC)
- Van Neer and colleagues, "More evidence for cat taming at the Predynastic elite cemetery of Hierakonpolis", Journal of Archaeological Science (2014)
