Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art · funerary_equipment

Cat Coffin

Source of record: Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art — catalogued by the holding institution. View the original record →

Description

Caption: Cat Coffin, 664 B.C.E. or later. Wood, gesso, pigment, animal remains, 19 1/8 × 5 1/2 × 10 1/4 in. (48.6 × 14 × 26 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.1944Ea-b. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

AI image analysis GPT-4o-2024-08-06

Machine-generated from the object's image on May 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.

A statue depicting a seated cat, likely representing the goddess Bastet.

The artifact is a sculptural representation of a cat, with an elegant posture and detailed facial features. The cat's ears, eyes, and whiskers are pronounced, showcasing skilled craftsmanship. The figure is mounted on a rectangular base, which appears weathered. The surface shows traces of gold, suggesting the use of gilding to enhance its appearance. This artifact likely served a religious or votive purpose, given the cultural significance of cats in ancient Egyptian religion, particularly related to the goddess Bastet.

religious Late Period good
Deities Bastet
Materials woodgold

Connections

Found at Saqqara
Deities Bastet
Materials WoodGold

Cross-references (2)

  • BKM-Accession 37.1944Ea-b tier-2
  • BKM-Object 118449 tier-2
About this record's data
  • From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art.
  • AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
  • Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
  • Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.