Cat Mummy Research Paper

Egyptians are known for their mummification practices. People believe that this means that only human remains were mummified, but that is not the case. Egyptians would also mummify animal remains. The mummy that I came across is a non-human mummy of a cat. Cat mummies were common in Egypt since they were sacred and were related to the Goddess Bastet. Bastet was associated with cats, music, and women. According to Bonnie V. Beaver, ‘as Bastet became the primary goddess, the cat became a prized animal—legally protected, . . . and mummified for burial in special cemeteries” (Feline Behavior). The cat mummy appears to date around 30 BC to 100 AD. It is associated with the Roman-Egyptian culture. The mummy is associated with this culture due to the “geometrical patterns using interlaced dyed strips of material” (World Museum). This mummy was mummified artificially since people

It was part of the University of Manchester’s Animal Bio Bank Project. The cat mummy was x-rayed and CT imaged to reveal what was inside of it. The analyses show that the cat was immature at the time of death. This means that the cat was probably a kitten since the analyses showed epiphyses on the long bones. Radio dense patches were also visible during these test but were “likely to be resin applied as an adhesive during the wrapping process” (World Museum). Mummification was the standard practice for this culture. They would mummy both human and animal remains with the same techniques. According to James Owen, “chemicals detected in tissues samples from animal mummies revealed the presence of various natural products found in human embalming materials used by the ancient Egyptians” (National Geographic). Even though they used the same techniques, it was far less complicated to mummy animals than humans. This happened because most animal mummies would be dunked with oil and another resin before being