Children of the Nile Heaven

Cats in Egypt part 2

Why was the cat important to the ancient Egyptian?

The lives and prosperity of Egyptians of every walk of life, indoors and outdoors, were threatened by two potential dangers: poisonous snakes and voracious rats and mice. Remember, rats will go to a sleeping child, drawn by the warmth and smell of milk, and actually not only bite but eat it. This was well known in the slums of Glasgow as late as the 1950s because of the nature of the large Victorian wash houses, now unused, under many of the buildings. Wild rats can grow as large as a small cat, even today. Their bites would certainly become infected, particularly in the heat of ancient Egypt.

The cobras and vipers (including horned ones) were encountered too often for comfort and their bite was deadly. Rats and mice attacked estate granaries and communal silos in towns. There was little man could do against these hazards so it is easy to see why animals able to destroy such vermin were not only tolerated, but welcomed. The wild cat, felis sylvestris libyca, would have strayed into settlements and seen these areas as ready-made killing grounds. Scraps of food to encourage them to return would be left out - as is done today on farms with feral cat populations. Eventually a symbiosis was achieved; in return for a steady supply of easy food, the cats kept the area clean of vermin.

Once they became used to each other's presence, the mutual benefits of their co-existence were readily obvious to both sides and the next step to domestication could be made without much difficulty. Cats are almost designed to take advantage of changes in their living conditions with a special ability to exploit any opportunities that present themselves. We only need to think of the cat that pretends to be a stray and begs for extra food from the neighbors to see that. It's ikely they soon extended their activities from the granaries and silos closer to the houses. There their ability to kill mice and, more importantly, rats and snakes stood them in good stead. They also offered a different appeal from the ususal run of pet monkeys and baboons and dogs and would quickly win the hearts of households. Homes gave them an added source of food and comfort for which they surrendered some degree of their independence. Now humans could influence their genetic make-up by breeding them and by modifying their diet. In this way, the cat, more correctly, domesticated itself. For me, it is still a moot point whether they domesticated us or we them...

Another different theory concerning the domestication of the cat regards religious motivation as the main driving force. In ancient Egypt, practical and ideological considerations are so closely intertwined that it would be methodologically wrong, and indeed difficult, to try to disentangle them. At present it is difficult to reconcile what is known of the modest religious significance of the cat in the early stages of its domestication with its important role as a protective and companion animal.

Other animals had their freedom curtailed when kept whether only for exploitable characteristics - the donkey's strength, the sheep's ability to provide wool, skins and meat, the dog's sense of smell and speed - or just companionship like monkeys and baboons. The qualities the cat was valued for depended upon it having considerable freedom and being, to an extent, a free agent. Sedentary farming was the pre-condition for the domestication of the cat, whereas the dog depended on the roving hunter. This is why the domestic cat appeared so much later and there is more evidence for the dog. The dog had been the companion of man for several thousand years and certainly long before permanent settlements were established.

Domestication in ancient Egypt can be seen along these lines:

• c.4000 BC - first permanent settlements with granaries and silos appear and provide the basic pre-conditions needed for the meeting with cats - felis sylvestris libyca.
• c 4000-2000 BC - cats and humans establish contact and develop symbiotic relationship based on mutual advantages. This gradually leads to domestication - it seems the chaus, the swamp cat, plays little part in this.
• c.2000-1000 BC - the fully domesticated cat is a permanent member of the Egyptian household as an economic and companion animal.
• c. 1000 BC-AD 350 - because they are now regarded as manifestations of certain deities, particularly Bastet the goddess, cats are also bred in large numbers in temple catteries.

1st picture is a wooden toy cat from the New Kingdom, about 1550-1069BC
2nd picture is a cat made of bronze from the late period, 664-332BC. It's a votive cat in the characteristic pose of most cats in Egyptian art. It was dedicated as an offering for a female goddess

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