Did you know...
*Egyptians kept cats as pets as early as the 4th millennium BC.

*The cat represents the Goddess Bast, the daughter of the sun-god.

*Cats were mummified in ancient Egypt.

*This bronze sculpture was probably a coffin for a cat; the mummy of the cat would have been inserted into the bottom of the base.

Look for...
*The naturalistic way the cat is sitting

Coffin for a Sacred Cat
Bronze, height 19-3/4 inches
Egypt, Ptolemaic Period, 304-33 bc
© The Cleveland Museum of Art
Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust, 1917.998