Cat mummy

Roman Period (about 30 BC - AD 395)

42.18.2

A long narrow mummy with a diamond shaped pattern and a cat's head with ears

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.

Presented by the Liverpool Royal Institution in 1942

You can find this mummy in the Living in Ancient Egypt section of the new Ancient Egypt gallery.


Back to the top