The Ballad of Clifford
In October of 2003, Clifford, our little mummified cat votive, was
taken to a veterinary clinic in Santa Barbara to be X-rayed. For the
first time, we were able to see what was hidden beneath the layers of
linen and resin that had baffled the staff since Clifford's arrivial to
our museum. The results were shocking. A close examination revealed
that Clifford was approximately 1 week old when he was killed, which is
much younger than the average votive cat. His bones hadn't even
calcified yet, which made the initial x-rays a bit confusing as his
bones were not clearly defined. Little Clifford was bulked up with
extra layers of linen wrappings and resin to give him the weight of a
much older cat, and he was then wrapped with more decorative layers and
most likely was fitted with a painted cat-shaped head.
Luckily, Clifford's sad story has a happy ending. He is currently
spending his afterlife as the star attraction of our lab tours and
ventures out of his glass jar on a near weekly basis to show interested
students and visitors about daily life in ancient Egypt.