User:Ebeaubou/Cats in ancient Egypt

1.     What Lies Under the Chair! A Study in Ancient Egyptian Private Tomb Scenes, Part I: Animals

·       Engy El-Kilany

-Professor and Chairman of  the Tourist Guidance Department, Faculty of Tourism, Minia University, Egypt

Heba Mahran

Minia University · Department of Tourism Guidance. Associate Professor of Egyptology.

·      , Vol. 51, 2015

·       Exploring the significance of animal depictions and their placements, including cause and possible dating of tombs through portrayal choices

Tomb scenes are all related to the life lived by the individual buried. Relatives, animals and belongings are not random (p.243). Depiction of animals both in tomb scenes and their usage in hieroglyphs reflect heir important role in ancient Egyptian society (243).

The authors work through detailed descriptions and dated histories of animals depicted on tomb scenes including dogs, monkeys, cats, geese, gazelle and ibex

The importance of the cat begins as entirely utilitarian in the Old Kingdom, as time progresses, because of their usefulness; cats become part of religious life and deity depictions and finally move in to becoming part of household family life environment (p.250).

Significance, dating and black and white figures of tomb scenes are categorized by animal. Importance and relationship of each animal to the entombed and kingdom periods are clear and concise. Reader can easily decipher article and not become overwhelmed by technical jargon.

2.    THE MUMMIFICATION OF CATS IN ANCIENT EGYPT

·       W. S. HARWOOD

·       Scientific  American, June 9, 1900

·       Cats in ancient Egypt were exalted to at the very least a place equal to that of other family member and sometimes to the status of deity. This can be seen in the ways in which cats were mummified, ranging from wrapping to full encasements adorned with jewels.

The article works to show the extreme reverence giving to cats in ancient Egypt. First describing the practices of Egyptian families upon their pets’ death and moving on to regal way in which they buried these creatures.

The author is observing mummified cats held within the British museum. He begins by describing with the death of the cat and moves through the different ways in which the death of the pet is dealt with within ancient Egyptian culture.

The descriptions of the people and their reverence for the animal is degraded to being child-like rather than mature or reasonable.

3.     A Tale of Two Kitties

·       Deborah Schorsch

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Objects Conservation, Department Member

James H. Frantz

Research Scientist, Department of Scientific Research, Metropolitan Museum of Art

·      , New Series, Vol. 55, No. 3 (Winter, 1997-1998

·       Authors’ purpose is to show how cats came to be associated with specific deities, moving from household members mummified along with their families to share the afterlife to being associated with specific qualities such as fertility and feminism.

·       Mummified cats and carvings of feline depictions vary greatly through time in Ancient Egypt, evolving from hunting tools used to scare birds and rodent control to family pets, to animals raised for the sole purpose of being killed and mummified as tribute to differing deities.

Authors, as employees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, interpret and describe samples belonging to the museum. They begin by identifying the importance of the cat in ancient Egypt and then move to a short history of how feline artifacts can to the museum and how and why they providence has been doubted and especially difficult to verify. The article moves on the describe construction of feline statues, ways in which artifacts are verified using modern techniques.

= 4.      Why Ancient Egyptians Loved Cats So Much = ·       James MacDonald

Published as a JSTOR Daily educational article, 11/27/2018

·       Brief article describing how cats were particularly revered beyond what other animals were attributed within ancient Egyptian culture

In light of a recent discovery of a large cache of mummified cats in Saqqara, the author seems to feel it important and pertinent to educate on how and why cats became tso particularly important to the Egyptians. Article is especially short and to the point, highlighting the evolution of the goddess, Bastet

5.   Ancient Egyptians may have given cats personality to conquer the world

·       David Grim

Online News Editor of Science

·       Published for Science 6/19/2017

·       The author traces when and where cats began to move from wild animals that hunted rodents drawn to agricultural fields into domestic partners.

·       While cats have evolved naturally, and would have continued to do so without human interventions, ancient Egyptians were instrumental in breeding and cultivating the domesticated cat as we know it today.

This article gives a unique view of the domestication of cats, not dependent upon tomb art, statues or the process of mummification, but analysis of the mitochondrial DNA of the felines tracing their domestication from Egypt across the rest the rest of the world.

= 6.   “Divine Felines” Highlights the Importance of Cats in Ancient Egypt = ·       Smithsonian New Release, 8/01/2017

·       “Exhibition Explores Depictions of Cats From Domesticated Animal to Symbols of Divinity”

·       The purpose of the  article is to advertise for an upcoming exhibition of the museum, while enticing the appetite for the potential visitor, giving a brief background on why such artifacts are significant to the history of Ancient Egypt

The dualism an independence of feline nature and how and why Egyptians related it to gods is noted here where it has not been elsewhere. This aids in explain why cats, ahead of other animals became so central to Egyptian life.

Jennifer Houser Wegner, PhD

Associate Curator, Egyptian Section

Penn Museum

7.   Cats, Lions and the Fabulous Felines of Ancient Egypt

·       Jennifer Houser Wegner,

Associate Curator, Egyptian Section, Penn Museum

·       Glencairn Museum News Release, 11/07/2015

''·       Through artifact and historical writing dating abck to as early as 60 BCE, the writer impart the significance of the cat and its relationship to especially the goddess Bastet. The purpose is to bolster the importance of the artifacts on display in the exhibit.''

The authors make it clear that it not just through archeological evidence that one is to believe the weight that the cat carries in ancient Egyptian culture. In this publishing, historical writing and reportedly firsthand accounts are offered as evidence as well.

8.     The Odyssey of an Egyptian Cat Sculpture

·        Jeffrey Maish

Antiquities Conservation, J. Paul Getty Museum Conservator

·       Published as a Getty News Story Mar 24, 2020

·       The purpose of the article is to highlight the history of feline art work and verify the antiquity of a piece within the Getty collection

This article mostly services as a record of how ancient Egyptians would often cast bronze figures. Modern techniques of dating these figures works to corroborate others articles’ dating of significance.