Head from a mummified cat that has been unwrapped of its bandages and broken apart. This is from the auction held in Liverpool on 10th February 1890 when an estimated 180,000 mummified cats, weighing 19.5 tons, were sold for fertilizer with a few being donated to the museum. The cats had been uncovered at Istabl Antar, near the settlement of Beni Hasan. The lioness goddess Pakhet (meaning ‘she who scratches’ or ‘the scratcher’) had a cult temple at Istabl Antar (sometimes known as Speos Artemidos) where thousands of mummified cats and other felines were given to Pakhet as a votive offering and then buried in catacombs.

CONDITION NOTE 1998: Brittle exposed bones, skull showing through and jaw is exposed, discoloured, outer surface hard and friable in places, surface dirt.

Donated to Cheltenham College by the Cheltenham Philosophical Institution.

Mummified Cat | National Museums Liverpool

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Head from a mummified cat that has been unwrapped of its bandages and broken apart. This is from the auction held in Liverpool on 10th February 1890 when an estimated 180,000 mummified cats, weighing 19.5 tons, were sold for fertilizer with a few being donated to the museum. The cats had been uncovered at Istabl Antar, near the settlement of Beni Hasan. The lioness goddess Pakhet (meaning ‘she who scratches’ or ‘the scratcher’) had a cult temple at Istabl Antar (sometimes known as Speos Artemidos) where thousands of mummified cats and other felines were given to Pakhet as a votive offering and then buried in catacombs. CONDITION NOTE 1998: Brittle exposed bones, skull showing through and jaw is exposed, discoloured, outer surface hard and friable in places, surface dirt. Donated to Cheltenham College by the Cheltenham Philosophical Institution.

Mummified Cat

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