Cat mummies found at Saqqara. Image: KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images
Over the weekend, archeologists unveiled dozens of cat mummies and 100 feline sculptures found in 4,500-year-old tombs at Saqqara, an ancient Egyptian necropolis south of Cairo. The exciting find reiterates that the human compulsion to worship our kitty companions predates the likes of Maro and Lil BUB by several millennia.Literal tons of mummified feline remains have been discovered in past Egyptian excavations. For instance, an estimated 180,000 Egyptian cat mummies were sent to a 1890 auction in Liverpool, UK, where they were mostly sold as fertilizer.The cats at Saqqara were found by an Egyptian-led expedition and will be preserved for research and public display.Over the coming weeks, the Saqqara expedition plans to open other tombs at this complex that appear to have remained completely undisturbed since the Fifth Dynasty.Get six of our favorite Motherboard stories every day by signing up for our newsletter.
The ritual sacrifice, mummification, and burial of cats was extremely common for thousands of years in ancient Egypt, and the animals were bred for this specific purpose. These sacrificed kitties were likely a mass offering to the cat goddess Bastet. A bronze statue dedicated to Bastet was recovered with the mummified cats, along with a multitude of wooden gilded feline figurines.
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In addition to the cat remains, archeologists also found mummified scarab beetles in a decorative box. Scarab beetles were also important symbols in ancient Egyptian religion and were associated with the sun god Ra. "The (mummified) scarab is something really unique," Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, told Reuters. “It is something really a bit rare.”Read More: Authorities Opened That Black Sarcophagus and Found Three Mummies Stewing in Sewage
The cat and scarab mummies were found in seven excavated tombs near the King Userkaf pyramid complex at Saqqara. The complex was built during the Fifth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom, around 2,500 BCE, and is known informally as the “heap of stone” because of its ramshackle appearance.