Mummified Cat

Mummified cats were given as gifts to goddesses who were associated with cats and lions, such as Bastet, Pakhet and Sekhmet. This mummy is wrapped in bandages of two colours and the head has been painted with facial features and decoration. The mummy was purchased from Norwich Castle Museum in 1956. It was previously in the collection of the physician Sir Peter Eade (1825 - 1915) of Norwich. Sampled and published in Nature, 2004, as part of a study of complex organic chemical balms of used in the preperation of animal mummies. The mummy was included in the Ancient Egyptian Animal Bio Bank Project (2016) for radiographic analysis (X-ray and CT scanning), specimen no. AEABB640: “X-rays show a complete cat skeleton; however, the CT scan reveals extensive compression of the body indicated by the limbs being superimposed rather than side by side. There is a dense pad on top of the skull, used to create height for the modelled face. The skull has experienced some post-desiccation damage. The femoral heads appear to have become dislocated form the pelvis, presumably during the mummification process, when the body was being manipulated into position. The head lies at an unnatural angle due to some misalignment in the cervical spine, again likely caused when the body was manipulated.”