# The Story of an Egyptian Cat Mummy Through CT Examination +
## 5 Discussion  
Research on ancient Egyptian mummies has been significantly aided by technological advances in imaging, particularly CT. Our research provides a case study of a cat mummy from Thebes to add to the extant literature concerning animal mummies and radiological investigations [11; 12; 19; 23; 34; 36; 37; 48; 49]. The scans show that the distal epiphyses of the femurs were unfused, as were the proximal epiphyses of the tibae (Figure 8). Regarding the forelimbs, the proximal epiphyses of the right humerus and the right ulna were unfused, as well as the distal epiphysis of the right radius. All these findings are an indicator of an immature individual [42; 43]. The young age is a problem for its taxonomic identification, as the diagnostic skeletal features are not fully developed and biometry is limited to certain skeletal elements. The distal breadth of the humerus (Bd, following [PERSON], 1979) is 15.8 mm. The humerus was chosen as the distal epiphyses was already fully ossified. Even if a possible slight further growth of the bone cannot be excluded, the size is in line with the variation of _Felis silvestris_ and looks to be too small for the jungle cat _Felis chaus_[14]. The size overlaps with that of the sand cat _Felis margarita_[14], but this species is considered to be much rarer and looks to be uncommon in the zooarcheological record in Egypt [16]. If we hypothesize the attribution to _Felis silvestris_, common amongst voice mummies [47; 48], the individual was almost certainly younger than 9 months [43; 44]. Furthermore, the dentition was still composed of deciduous teeth, while the permanent molars were unerupted (Figure 3b) and the fourth premolar of the maxilla was still within the chamber (Figure 3a). Since molars erupt at 5 or 6 months, and the eruption of permanent premolars occurs between 4 and 6 months [45], it is possible to hypothesize that the animal was probably less than about 5 months old at death. This age is very common among cat mummies, as other mummies prove [47; 48; 50]. Previous research on mummified cats has shown that a common method to sacrifice young cats was to break their necks by twisting them or hitting them on their head [46; 48; 51]. These procedures left prominent marks near the cervical vertebrae and occipital portion of the skull [48]. Based on a comparison between our cat mummy and cases reported in the literature [19; 46; 48], it is feasible to conclude that the death may be attributed to a neck dislocation with visible fractures, as shown in Figure 5a,b. Additionally, the CT scans highlighted the presence of a perfectly rounded and symmetric foramen in the occipital bone (Figure 5c,d). Various hypotheses have been proposed regarding its origin, suggesting it may be related to a traumatic injury, such as a small perforation by a small tool, given its 2 mm dimension, or it could represent an anatomical feature of the skull that occasionally forms. However, the exact nature of this foramen cannot be definitively ascertained from the CT scan alone, as it requires more detailed analysis for a thorough understanding. Most of the postcranial elements have evident fractures, such as those indicated in Figure 4. The breaks on the limb bones seem to have occurred post-mortem, unlike the fractures on the skull and vertebrae. For example, the proximal part of the humerus is separated and rotated by 90 degrees in relation to the bone's diaphysis (Figure 6b). The manipulation, embalming process, and positioning of the skeleton may have compromised the structural integrity of the bones, as did its burial and subsequent transport, since there is no evidence for bone repair/growth. An intriguing observation in the skull is the presence of various materials within the cranial cavity.