An X-ray analysis of a 2,500-year-old Egyptian mummified cat baffled scientists after they discovered it was actually a piece of cloth with three individual cats inside, topped with a ball of yarn for a head. The researchers in France scanned the mummy, held at the Museum of Fine Arts in Rennes, using advanced technology that allowed them to create a 3D image of its insides.
What materialised was a digital image of five hind legs and three tails, leading the scientists to conclude that the mummy was in fact home to three smaller felines.
A statement from the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) said: “While it was admitted that the mummy presented at the museum was that of a single cat, the digitisation revealed the absence of skulls, vertebrae and ribs, and the presence of bones of several felines (five hind legs) three queues of almost complete cats), as well as that of a textile ball in place of the head, testifying to unknown practices.”
Theophane Nicolas, one of the researchers said: “With a medical scanner, we always expect to find something.
“In this case, we expected to see a cat and not several cats, but it is perhaps not so exceptional.
“There are millions of animal mummies, but few have been imagined. Some are empty, others contain only one bone, sometimes the cat is complete.
“The mummy of Rennes is a variant.
“Some researchers believe that we are dealing with an ancient scam organised by unscrupulous priests, we believe on the contrary that there are innumerable ways to make animal mummies.
“We will know more once we have made a body of imagery, which joins a field of study that is developing on a global scale.
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They were kept as pets and were central to practices for more than 30 centuries.
Some of the cat-like deities include Mafdet, Bastet and Sekhmet, representing justice, fertility and power.
Cat cemeteries at the archaeological sites Speos Artemidos and Saqqara were used for several centuries.
The Theban Necropolis on the West Bank of the River Nile, Egypt, shows depictions of cats in domestic scenes – these tombs having belonged to nobles and high-ranking officials of the 18th Dynasty which spanned from around 1550 to 1290 BC.
Evidence suggests that the Egyptians’ enthusiasm for cats largely contributed to the dispersal of cats around the world.
The 3D digital model of the mummified cat in Rennes will help researchers to better understand how these animals were treated.
It also makes for easier understanding of how and why trade practices took place when the cats died.
Though Mr Nicolas, the researcher, hinted at some scientists believing that the discovery could point towards an “ancient scam”, he believes it could be just one of many methods the Egyptians had for mummifying their cats.
The next step, he says, is towards performing more scans on mummified cats, previously thought to contain just one feline.
This will allow researchers to learn if their finding is an exception, or a more common occurrence.
Mr Nicolas said: “We will know more once we have made a body of imagery, which joins a field of study that is developing on a global scale.”