Ancient Egypt has a long tradition of names surviving into the present, even if they’re no longer in use by people. The most notable examples are the pharaohs, including Hatshepsut, Thutmose, Ramses, and Tutankhamun. One of Egypt’s long-forgotten gods survives as a shoe brand – Osiris.
William Shakespeare made a household name of Cleopatra, the last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, in his 1623 play Antony and Cleopatra, which was adapted into four movies between 1908 and 1972. Today, the queen retains a significant presence online in the games of IGT. The casino games at Paddy Power include Cleopatra’s Chest and an unlikely festive edition of the slot, Cleopatra Christmas.
The weight carried by the names of Cleopatra and Tutankhamun sometimes pales before something much smaller – a cat called Nedjem.
Domestication
The Smithsonian reports that the 500 million house cats in the world today may come from one of two lines of domestication, beginning in the Stone Age, some 10,000 years ago. Cat bones in Quanhucun, China, suggest a connection from 5,300 years ago, too.
The evidence of domestication can be surprisingly simple. Cats that are older than their wild counterparts may hint at human care in their later years. Also, house cats are smaller than non-domesticated varieties.
Later, around 3,100BC, cats found a home in Ancient Egypt, lured by the vermin that human foodstuffs attract. These were divine beings, something they’ve apparently never forgotten as a species, and the deities Bastet and Sekhmet both had feline features.
When they died, cats were mummified with their owners. The Temple of Bastet in Tell-Basta, Egypt, contains an enormous number of deceased moggies, thought to be in the hundreds of thousands. It doesn’t always pay to be a human’s beloved.
Nedjem
Nedjem, meaning “sweet”, holds the Guinness World Record for the “first named cat”. It wasn’t too far removed in time from the first recorded human name in writing – Kushim, an accountant from 3,200BC who lived in Sumer, now Iraq.
Nedjem was unusual for several reasons. Cats didn’t have names back then, for one, but Nedjem may be the first named feline in history, living somewhere between 1479 and 1425BC – or the period Thutmose III watched over Egypt. Magazine website Medium claims Thutmose III had a cat too – Ta-miu. It was mummified when he died.
Oddly enough, Nedjem wasn’t just a cat’s name. During the reign of Ramesses III, a mortuary worker called Nedjem was immortalized with a block statue depicting his family on two sides. It currently lives at The Met on Fifth Avenue.
The University of Memphis holds another Nedjem, this time a “King’s Scribe, Great Steward”, to quote its dedication, to King Ramesses II.
Mummification
Much of an Ancient Egyptian’s life was spent preparing for the end. King Tut’s tomb held a chariot, food, weapons, and the canopic jars that contained his internal organs. While the ultimate fate of a cat – mummification – doesn’t exactly scream “divine”, the process ensured they could spend eternity with their owner – presumably, after an apology.
