![]() From about 1500 BC it was believed that the sun god Ra could manifest himself in the form of a cat, the “Great Tomcat”. Cats assumed great importance in Egyptian religion from about 2000 BC onwards. In most cases, the cats depicted in Egyptian art bear a strong resemblance to the modern Egyptian Mau with elegant build, large ears and eyes and often spotted markings. Cats are also pictured in the company of Egyptian hunters, sometimes with birds in their mouths, leading to the suggestion that the Egyptians may have used them either to flush birds out of the marshes or possibly to retrieve carcasses. Cats occur particularly frequently in the art of the New Kingdom (1570-1070 BC) and again in the Late Period (1070-332 BC). By 1450 BC cats are commonplace in paintings of domestic scenes. From 1900 BC the cats depicted in art are often in domestic contexts such as for example a relief from Coptos dating from about1950 BC that shows a cat sitting underneath a woman’s chair. ![]() The first cats start to appear in Egyptian art from around 2000 BC, and give us a unique window onto the growing connection between cats and man. The word ‘mau’ is derived from one of these ancient languages, and simply means cat. In demotic this was miu or mii and in the later coptic emu or amu. The ancient Egyptians did not have different words to distinguish between wild and domestic cats all cats were referred to simply as ‘(s)he who mews’. In general appearance, libyca is therefore not dissimilar to modern Egyptian Maus. The coat colour varies considerably from rufous brown to sandy fawn or even silvery grey, and the coat pattern is similar to a broken mackerel tabby with a darker spine line, ringed tail, black tail tip and broken striped markings on the body. This cat measures about 600mm from nose to tail tip, and is long legged and lightly built with large, non-tufted ears. ![]() The most likely candidate for the ancestor of the domestic cat is a small wild cat similar to the modern day species known as the North African wild cat, Felis sylvestris libyca. To trace the full history of spotted Egyptian cats we have to start in ancient Egypt around 4000 years BC when the first permanent settlements began to appear along the Nile and small cats of the genus Felis began their close, and long-lasting association with man.
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