Wrapped Creatures: Animal Mummies from Egypt

Coffin for a Pair of Kittens
Egypt
Ptolemaic period, 323–30 B.C.E.
Bronze
Anonymous loan

In ancient Egyptian religion, animals were associated with particular divinities, and by about 500 B.C.E. mummified animals had become part of religious ritual. A small exhibit of animal mummies included the mummy of a hawk, lent by MU's Museum of Anthropology, a cat mummy, the mummy of a baby crocodile, the mummy and coffin of a shrew, and two small bronze coffins, one for a snake, the other for two lizards, all a loan from the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. A bronze coffin for a pair of kittens, an anonymous loan, was also part of the exhibit.

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