Cats That Changed The Course of History
How cats sealed the fate of an ancient Egyptian army
Ailurophilia comes from Classical Greek, meaning “cat loving” or “love for cats”. We will dive into this topic from three different perspectives: historical, modern and scientific, even though there is much more than that to our feline friends.
Cats in ancient Egypt:
The first known cat with a name was called “Nedjem” meaning “sweet” or “pleasant” and dates from the reign of Thutmose III (1479 -1425 B.C.) in Egypt.
Nedjem was found in the tomb of a noble man named Puimre, and unlike dogs, it was uncommon to name cats in ancient Egypt.
Domestication of cats started in the Near East around 7500 B.C. It was long thought that cat domestication was initiated in ancient Egypt around 3100 B.C.
We know very little about the short life of the crown Prince Thutmose although most of the knowledge we have we got from his cat Ta — miu. Ta -miu served as his personal pet, we know nothing about how she died, but she was mummified and her sarcophagus tells us most of what we know about her owner.