Skip Navigation

Cat Mummy

Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

On View: Funerary Gallery 2, Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Gallery, 3rd Floor
Often, the more elaborate the wrapping, the less likely it is that the whole animal is inside, as the two CT scans shown here reveal. Perhaps the intricate wrapping substitutes for the animal.

This ibis is the most elaborately wrapped of all the animal mummies on display here. The herringbone pattern linen, the beak, and the elaborate crown all cover a mummy made only from ibis feathers. In contrast, the simple circular wrapping of this cat, with a head modeled in linen, conceals a complete cat mummy.
MEDIUM Animal remains, linen, pigment
  • Place Made: Egypt
  • DATES 750–400 B.C.E.
    DYNASTY Dynasty 22 to Dynasty 27
    PERIOD Third Intermediate Period or later
    DIMENSIONS 5 1/2 × 3 3/4 × 24 1/2 in. (14 × 9.5 × 62.2 cm)  (show scale)
    ACCESSION NUMBER 37.1988E
    CREDIT LINE Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
    CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Mummified cat, neatly wrapped. Features painted on face. Decorated with various crossings and interlacing of bands from foot to neck. Single cloth over head on which features are indicated in line. Wound from neck to tail in alternately light and dark bands. Ears simulated in cloth.
    CAPTION Cat Mummy, 750–400 B.C.E. Animal remains, linen, pigment, 5 1/2 × 3 3/4 × 24 1/2 in. (14 × 9.5 × 62.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.1988E. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: , 37.1984E_37.1988E_GrpA_SL4.jpg)
    IMAGE 37.1984E_37.1988E_GrpA_SL4.jpg.
    "CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
    RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY
    You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
    RECORD COMPLETENESS
    Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.