Cats in History

You never know where my mind will wander when left to ... well, wander. I was in a mood to create some cat earrings. And I decided to make 2 pair; one with a tortie look, the other a bit more glam. I don't know about the rest of you, but when I'm not totally sure what I want to create (just yet) I drag out all sorts of beads, findings, wire, string ... and play. Pairing things this way, and that way until something sticks. 

I'm not sure how I got to a place where I used hemp twine for these tortie earrings, but the black just sort of spoke to me, and once I finished I thought they almost had an Egyptian look to them. The mix of black, gold and warm brown I guess took me there. I decided to make a second pair of cats, but this time all white with a tiny labradorite round at the top. I'm not showing it here, but there is also a bit of a curl to the tail in back. These two cats remind me of another pair of cats I know named Isabella and Angel. You can see the real ones over on the Beaded Tail blog.

I decided to see what role cats played in Ancient Egypt, and found that they were first domesticated from wildcats 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent. That is thousands of years before the rise of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs. Cats were praised for controlling the local vermin, you know like cobras snaking around outside. Egyptians loved their cats and took them to the afterlife; having them mummified along with them. There were deities of cats, one of the well known one called Bastet was known as the keeper of hearth and home, the protector of women's secrets, guardian against evil spirits and disease. Cats were sacred, and protected. The penalty for killing a cat in Ancient Egypt was death, and in households where a cat died people shaved their eyebrows as a sign of deep mourning which lasted until their eyebrows had grown back. What an interesting and strange thing to do?!