About this object

The Egyptians’ reverence for cats can be traced back more than 5,000 years, when felines were credited with protecting early pharaohs from snakes and scorpions. Their dexterity at hunting mice and other vermin led to their domestication during the Middle Kingdom (around 2040-1648 BC). By the time of the New Kingdom (ca. 1540-1069 BC), they had become household companions, as seen on tomb paintings and reliefs, sometimes seated under their master's chair or on board boats.

Cats became the sacred animal of the goddess Bastet, the best known of Egypt’s feline deities. Bastet was a benevolent counterpart to Sekhmet, the lion-headed goddess of destruction. Together they illustrate the complex nature of cats that the Egyptians so admired: on the one hand they could be graceful, vigilant and fertile; on the other, they could be aggressive, destructive and ruthless. Widely popular throughout Egypt, the centre of the Bastet cult was the city of Bubastis, just north of present-day Cairo. Mummified cats were dedicated to Bastet and buried at her temples, often enclosed in containers of wood or bronze. Thousands of bronze figures of gods, in varying sizes and forms, were dedicated in temples throughout Egypt. The donors of the statues hoped to communicate with the gods.