Mummified Kitten

56.22.225

Information

Mummified kitten wrapped in bandages, with a cylindrical shaped body and naturalistic head. At only 16 cm tall this is very small for a cat mummy and until we could X-ray the mummy in 2015 we were uncertain if it contained a complete animal or was empty. Radiographs revealed that there is a skeleton inside, likely to belong to a foetal or neo-natal cat, based upon size and the low density of the bones. The collector, Henrietta Gurney, donated the mummy to Norwich Castle Museum in 1828 with information suggesting it had been discovered by the famous explorer Giovani Belzoni in KV 17, the tomb of Sety I in the Valley of the Kings in 1817. The mummy was included in the Ancient Egyptian Animal Bio Bank Project (2015) for radiographic analysis (X-ray and CT scanning), specimen no. AEABB741: Complete mummy bundle modelled in cylindrical form with modelled facial features. The bundle is small for a cat mummy, but radiographs revealed that there is a skeleton inside. The remains are likely to belong to a foetal or neo-natal cat, based upon size and the low density of the bones. The head of the cat is in the modelled head of the bundle, but there has been an attempt to elongate the bundle at the base. Reformats of the CT data reveal the bones, but thresholding was not ideal due to the young age of the animal at the time of death. A metallic conservation pin is visible towards the base of the bundle, in line with the limits of the skeletal remains." CONDITION NOTE 1998: Outer cloth very fragile and loose-fragmenting, metal pin stuck into object, damage to face and loss of outer cloth on face, discoloured, surface dirt.