Did the ancient Egyptians dress living cats in jewelry?

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Cats in ancient Egypt were certainly revered, and there are suggestions that they may have been regarded as "demi-gods in their own right". In later periods, the cat came to be associated with the Goddess Baset, and it is because of this association that so many cats were mummified. Similar associations exist between other commonly mummified animals and a particular god or goddess from the ancient Egyptian pantheon, for example, the ibis (the god Thoth), baboon (also the god Thoth), and the bull (the god Apis).

The jewellery associated with the mummified animals is associated with the mummification rituals (and so has parallels with similar jewellery found with human mummies), but I'm not aware of any evidence that cats were adorned with jewellery while still alive.

In fact, ancient Egyptian language seems not to distinguish between wild cats and domesticated cats. All cats in ancient Egypt were known simply as "miu", if male, or "miut" if female (this is often translated in texts as "he or she who mews", but that is quite likely a modern gloss based on the phonetic similarity between the words "miu" and "mew").

The rare occasions where texts refer to cats by name are always in relation to royal pets. It is possible that cats kept as pets by royal princes would have been fitted with collars, or something similar, to reflect their status, but - as far as I know - there is no surviving evidence for this.

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