Tuesday, August 14, 2012

The Mystery of the Cat Sarcophagus

Donna Barr and I saw the King Tut Exhibit at the Pacific Science Center In Seattle yesterday. It did not feature the large, flashy items I recall seeing at the LA County Art Museum in the 1970s, but it did have objects with small, fascinating details of particular interest to artists....beautiful freehand carved lines on a golden mask, a sketch on stone (in graphite, perhaps) of a nude princess about to enjoy a duck dinner, and a cat sarcophagus.

The images of the cat seemed particularly odd.... There was a little dartlike object protruding from the cat's back which we were told was its tail tip, and you can see what looks like the tail wrapped around the cat's haunch in front, but even if the tail was tucked under its leg (which does not seem anatomically correct even on a skinny cat, the way the loose skin covers the leg when it is bent) it looks like the tail is emerging from the other side of its back, anyhow. The Egyptians were much better observers and recorders of natural history, it seemed to us. Could this have been a depiction of an accidental death by an arrow or small spear? The web link shows the interpretation of the writing on it, which does not refer to any accident.

Funny thing, in the pictures in this article about the sarcophagus, the images seem to be reversed. On the tomb itself, the cats were facing in opposite directions from those depicted in the link below. If I was able to read hieroglyph, I would no doubt find them backwards....




Here are fascinating details of the sarcophagus