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Millions of cats were mummified in ancient Egypt as offerings to the gods. Household companions in life, they also accompanied the dead into the afterlife, while others were dedicated in temples as prayers made material. Cats, together with ibises, crocodiles and other animals, could serve as intermediaries between humans and the divine, or even as earthly manifestations of particular deities. These mummies reveal an interspecies spiritual economy in which animals circulated between domestic life, religious devotion and death. X-ray examination has shown that not every mummy contains a complete cat. Some preserve an entire animal, while others contain only partial remains or symbolic substitutes. This suggests that ritual efficacy did not always depend on the presence of a whole body.
Collection of Musée des Confluences, Lyon
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