Cat Coffin

Brooklyn Museum

About the work

curationist logo

Egyptian cat mummies were placed in decorative funerary boxes and coffins. This gilded coffin opens from the bottom to insert the mummy. The mummy found inside is of an undetermined species. It's either a Felis silvestris, Felis lybica, or Felis chaus. The former is domesticated and the latter two are native wildcats.Felines were first domesticated by farmers in the historical Fertile Crescent nearly 10,000 years ago. Thousands of years later, Egyptians domesticated Felis silvestris lybica. Similarly, farmers had a hand in the process, using cats to protect their crops from pests.

Save this work.

Start an account to add this work to your personal curated collection.

masonry card

Work details

Help us improve the metadata.

Is something is missing?

We're just getting started!

Sign Up to receive updates.

Curationist connects people to cultural knowledge from all over the world.