DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6640#0067
TUB CEMETERY OF CATS.
53
reign, if not the special reverence of which cats
were the object, which can be traced to a very-
early date; at least the custom of giving those
animals a sacred burial. I consider therefore the
twenty-second dynasty as havingfirst established
the cemetery of cats. Standing on the western
part of the mounds of Tell Basta, and looking
towards Zagazig, the visitor has before him an
area of several acres, which has been dug out
thoroughly. Near the numerous pits by which
the place is honeycombed, are seen heaps of
white bones of cats. This spot has been one
of the most productive mines which the
fellaheen had at their disposal. There they
found the numerous bronze cats which fill the
shops of the dealers at Cairo, and also the
standing statuettes of a divinity crowned with a
lotus flower, out of which issue two plumes,
the god Nefertum, the son of Bast.
Although the cemetery was considered
as exhausted, I made an attempt at excava-
tions in order to find bronze cats, and to
ascertain the manner in which the animals are
buried. We emptied completely several of
the large pits in which they had been deposited.
The work was superintended chiefly by Dr.
Goddard, who took part in the excavations
during the winter of 1889. The fellaheen, when
they dug for bronze cats, began with the
upper pits ; we had to go much deeper than
they had done, and we reached older pits,
which the Avater of the inundation reaches
every year, so that the bronzes are in a very
bad state of preservation. We discovered
a few of them-—fitting cats, heads, the inner
part of which is empty; a good specimen
representing Bast standing under the form of
a woman with a slender body and a cat's head,
wearing a long dress and holding in her hands
a sistrum and a basket, and having at her
feet four crouching kittens.
The bones are heaped up in large subter-
raneous pits, the walls and bottom of which are
made of bricks or hardened clay. Near each
pit is seen the furnace in which the bodies of
the animals were burnt; its red or blackened
bricks indicate clearly the action of the fire,
which is confirmed by the circumstance that
the bones often form a conglomerate with
ashes and charcoal. This cremation accounts
also for the difficulty we had in finding unbroken
bones or complete skulls; indeed, when handled,
they nearly always fell to pieces. Here and there
among the bones have been thrown bronze cats
or statuettes of Nefertum, which are but rarely
intact; the feet are generally broken off.
Some of the pits were very large ; we emptied
one containing over 720 cubic feet of bones.
This gives an idea of the quantity of cats
necessary for filling it.
At Professor Yirchow's request we gathered
skulls which could stand the transport, and we
sent them to the illustrious naturalist in Berlin.
We had been struck at first sight by the fact
that several skulls were too large to be cats ;
the Arab diggers called them rabbit heads.
According to the researches of Professor Yir-
chow these skulls belonged to ichneumons,
which were buried with the cats because they
also were sacred animals. As for the cats
themselves, the interesting discussions which
have taken place at the Anthropological Society
of Berlin have shown that they belonged to
several species of the cat-tribe, but not to the
domestic cat, which probably the Egyptains
had not. The majority of the bones of
Bubastis are those of the African type called
Felis maniculata, which, according to Dr.
Hartmann, is the original stock of our
domestic cat, and abounds in Ethiopia and on
the Upper Nile. There we are to look for the
primitive resort of our cat, the domestication of
which goes back only to a recent epoch, much
later than the pictures of the Egyptian tombs.
It is probable that the Egyptians had succeeded
in taming the cat, as is done to-day with the
ichneumon, and that they used it for hunting
purposes, or otherwise, but it seems well
53
reign, if not the special reverence of which cats
were the object, which can be traced to a very-
early date; at least the custom of giving those
animals a sacred burial. I consider therefore the
twenty-second dynasty as havingfirst established
the cemetery of cats. Standing on the western
part of the mounds of Tell Basta, and looking
towards Zagazig, the visitor has before him an
area of several acres, which has been dug out
thoroughly. Near the numerous pits by which
the place is honeycombed, are seen heaps of
white bones of cats. This spot has been one
of the most productive mines which the
fellaheen had at their disposal. There they
found the numerous bronze cats which fill the
shops of the dealers at Cairo, and also the
standing statuettes of a divinity crowned with a
lotus flower, out of which issue two plumes,
the god Nefertum, the son of Bast.
Although the cemetery was considered
as exhausted, I made an attempt at excava-
tions in order to find bronze cats, and to
ascertain the manner in which the animals are
buried. We emptied completely several of
the large pits in which they had been deposited.
The work was superintended chiefly by Dr.
Goddard, who took part in the excavations
during the winter of 1889. The fellaheen, when
they dug for bronze cats, began with the
upper pits ; we had to go much deeper than
they had done, and we reached older pits,
which the Avater of the inundation reaches
every year, so that the bronzes are in a very
bad state of preservation. We discovered
a few of them-—fitting cats, heads, the inner
part of which is empty; a good specimen
representing Bast standing under the form of
a woman with a slender body and a cat's head,
wearing a long dress and holding in her hands
a sistrum and a basket, and having at her
feet four crouching kittens.
The bones are heaped up in large subter-
raneous pits, the walls and bottom of which are
made of bricks or hardened clay. Near each
pit is seen the furnace in which the bodies of
the animals were burnt; its red or blackened
bricks indicate clearly the action of the fire,
which is confirmed by the circumstance that
the bones often form a conglomerate with
ashes and charcoal. This cremation accounts
also for the difficulty we had in finding unbroken
bones or complete skulls; indeed, when handled,
they nearly always fell to pieces. Here and there
among the bones have been thrown bronze cats
or statuettes of Nefertum, which are but rarely
intact; the feet are generally broken off.
Some of the pits were very large ; we emptied
one containing over 720 cubic feet of bones.
This gives an idea of the quantity of cats
necessary for filling it.
At Professor Yirchow's request we gathered
skulls which could stand the transport, and we
sent them to the illustrious naturalist in Berlin.
We had been struck at first sight by the fact
that several skulls were too large to be cats ;
the Arab diggers called them rabbit heads.
According to the researches of Professor Yir-
chow these skulls belonged to ichneumons,
which were buried with the cats because they
also were sacred animals. As for the cats
themselves, the interesting discussions which
have taken place at the Anthropological Society
of Berlin have shown that they belonged to
several species of the cat-tribe, but not to the
domestic cat, which probably the Egyptains
had not. The majority of the bones of
Bubastis are those of the African type called
Felis maniculata, which, according to Dr.
Hartmann, is the original stock of our
domestic cat, and abounds in Ethiopia and on
the Upper Nile. There we are to look for the
primitive resort of our cat, the domestication of
which goes back only to a recent epoch, much
later than the pictures of the Egyptian tombs.
It is probable that the Egyptians had succeeded
in taming the cat, as is done to-day with the
ichneumon, and that they used it for hunting
purposes, or otherwise, but it seems well