Ashmolean Museum Oxford Opens New Ancient Egypt and Nubia Galleries

As written at

Ashmolean Museum: News & Events

"The Ashmolean is delighted to announce the opening date of the new galleries of Ancient Egypt and Nubia (present day Sudan) on Saturday 26 November 2011."

Read the whole report.

Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs Tickets at De Young Museum, 2/25/2010 - SF Gate

Talk about good timing....

Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs Tickets at De Young Museum, 2/25/2010 - SF Gate:

"This exhibit will feature more than 130 artifacts from the 18th Dynasty king's opulently appointed tomb and other ancient Egyptian sites."

Tutankhamun and "Where the Great Akhenaten Lies" : Asharq Alawsat Newspaper (English)

Tutankhamun and "Where the Great Akhenaten Lies" : Asharq Alawsat Newspaper (English)

Zahi Hawass reports on the great discovery made regarding the identification of Akhenaten among the mummies of Egypt, inter alia writing:

"At a press conference for international media figures held by the Supreme Council of Antiquities last Wednesday at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, I announced that important [archeological] discoveries had been made that shed more light on the dynasty of the golden pharaoh Tutankhamen. These discoveries marked the beginning of a new chapter in using modern techniques and advanced technology in the field of archeological discoveries."

Read the rest here, where it appears quite clearly from the Hawass statements that Akhenaten has been convincingly identified.

The Egyptian Chronicles

The Egyptian Chronicles is the name of an electronic monthly magazine with one of its features on Ancient Egyptian History.

Pharaonic Egyptian Hieroglyphs 1 - The Vowels - Matres Lectionis

Reposted from the LexiLine Journal 288

The current view of the Egyptian hieroglyphs is that they contained no "vowels". Although this is true in terms of "modern" vowels as used to separate consonants, the Egyptian hieroglyphs do in fact have symbols for vowel-type sounds which did not function as "vowels" per se but which represented separate language elements as specific sounds.

New File Added to our Egypt Files

To our LexiLine files at Yahoo Groups at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LexiLine/files/Egypt/
I have added the file pharaonicvowels.png:


showing my decipherment of the ancient Old Kingdom Pharaonic Egyptian vowel-sound system.

Decipherment of the Vowel-Sound System of Ancient Egypt

This decipherment is the beginning of my correction of the mainstream transcriptions, transliterations and interpretations of the hieroglyphs. Mainstream work contains many, many errors.

In the early days of the Pharaonic Egyptian hieroglyphs, the ancients did not yet have our words or specific concepts for "vowel" or "consonant".

Indeed, even in modern times, a thing like "vowels" is a complicated subject. See e.g. Louis Goldstein of Yale University [currently at USC] and his writings on "vowel theory" at
http://artphon.usc.edu/LG/CV.php

Yet, in order to devise a written language, the ancients had to have some primitive "linguistic" understanding of sound and its connection to symbols in order to devise a workable writing system.

I have discovered how that Pharaonic "vowel" system worked.

Mater Lectionis (singular) - Early vowels in the Hebrew Alphabet

The Pharaonic "vowels" show that the Egyptian hieroglyphs were the DIRECT predecessor system to what is know as the matres lectionis (plural) of the Hebrew alphabet in which Aleph is mostly an A, He mostly an A, Waw mostly an O or a U and Jod mostly I, E or AE.

The Linguistics of Sound and Vowel Theory

Mater lectionis derives out of the limited number of ways in which vowels can be formed by human speech. See the Wikipedia Online at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matres_lectionis

Early Vowel Theory

As Goldstein notes at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matres_lectionis -

Indian grammarians as early as the 7th century already divided vowels into three distinct types:
(1) palatal (so-called "mouth vowels")
(2) labio-velar (so-called "lip vowels")
(3) pharyngeal (so-called "throat vowels")

Modern Vowel Theory

Modern linguistics has expanded this list to four types of vowels:
(1) palatal ("mouth vowels")
(2) velar ("lip vowels")
(3) uvular ("tongue vowels")
(4) pharyngeal ("in the throat")

The Egyptian Vowel-Type Hieroglyphs mark Vowel Sounds

What we have discovered in the most ancient Pharaonic Egyptian hieroglyphs is that their makers recognized four qualities of vowel-type sounds - and consciously selected homophonic (same-sounding) symbols to mark these sounds - sounds which are similar in function to modern linguistic vowel theory, but of course not as advanced in their nature 5000 years ago.

These four vowel-type sounds in ancient Egypt were:

1. The Breath Sound - the "LEAF, reed LEAF" Hieroglyph
2. The Throat Sound - the "EAGLE" (vulture) Hieroglyph
3. The Nasal Sound - the "CHICKEN" Hieroglyph
4. The Palatal Sound - the "BENT ARM" Hieroglyph

In order to represent these "vowel-types" with symbols, the makers of the hieroglyphs - on the basis of the evidence of the Indo-European language, e.g. on the basis of Latvian lexical comparisons, selected symbols which were pronounced similarly - i.e. were homophonic - to the vowel sound description.

The Four Pairs of Homophonic Hieroglyphs and Vowel Sound Functions

The following four pairs of words are homophonic in Latvian - and fit the Egyptian hieroglyphs perfectly. I find that these same homophonic pairs are found clearly in the Egyptian hieroglyphs:

1. ALPA (whence ALPHA) viz. ELPA "breath" and LAPA viz. VARPA "leaf, ear" whence also VARPATA "couch-grass, dog grass". (Note that the later alphabet used the steer symbol for Alpha, a steer in Latvian being LUOP, also a word homophonic to ALPA. In ancient Old Kingdom Egypt, the "leaf" or "reed leaf" symbol thus represented the "breath sound" in the ancient hieroglyphs.

2. IERIKLIS ("in the throat") and ERGLIS "eagle" (vulture in Egypt). The "eagle" viz. "vulture" symbol thus represented the "throat sound" in the ancient hieroglyphs.

3. UOSTA ("smell, smeller, of the nose") and VISTA "chicken". The "chicken" symbol thus represented a "nasal sound" in the ancient hieroglyphs.

4. ROKA ("bent, arm") and LOKA "bent, pliable, flexible", supple"). The "bent arm" thus represented a "palatal (bent) sound" in the ancient hieroglyphs. Even today LOCISHANA in Latvian is applied as a word in linguistics, applying to declension and conjugation.

Consequence of the Hieroglyphic "Vowel-Sound" Discovery

This above discovery now permits us to recognize that the hieroglyphs were not just chance symbols selected at random or because of religious or other considerations, but were selected primarily for their pronounced SOUND as being similarly sounding - homophonic - to an intended linguistic sound FUNCTION.

Accordingly, we will expect a similar intelligence and rational reasoning to be at work in the formulation of the the remainder of the hieroglyphs, also for the "consonants" (which - as wel will see - were seen combined with vowel sounds). Even though the ancients did not have the precise equivalent concept of "consonant" in ancient days, they recognized similar sounds.

An explanation of the hieroglyphs of the ancient Egyptian "alphabet" will soon be forthcoming.

Bibliotheca Alexandrina - Egypt ReImagines The Pharaonic Library at Alexandria - CNN.com

Egyptian library merges modern technology with ancient relics - CNN.com

"London, England (CNN) -- As a man whose vision of paradise is 'some sort of library,' Ismail Serageldin must sometimes feel like he works amid the Garden of Eden.

The former World Bank vice-president is director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA) -- Egypt's $220 million reimagining of the ancient world's most celebrated library, built on its historical site in the city of Alexandria."

Read the rest here.

Egyptian Pharaoh statue discovered in Sudan | Bikya Masr

Egyptian Pharaoh statue discovered in Sudan | Bikya Masr

Writing Origins : Pharaohs, Moderns and Dyslexics

Writing Origins : Pharaohs, Moderns and Dyslexics

Deep Sea Sailing Vesels of Ancient Egypt Discovered : Ancient Pharaonic Mariners

Boston University archeologist’s digs uncover clues to Egyptian mariners - The Boston Globe

"BU archeologist unearths clues about ancient Egypt’s sea trade

The archeological digs at Egypt’s Wadi Gawasis have yielded neither mummies nor grand monuments.

But Boston University archeologist Kathryn Bard and her colleagues are uncovering the oldest remnants of seagoing ships and other relics linked to exotic trade with a mysterious Red Sea realm called Punt.

Starting in the middle of the last decade, the Bard-Fattovich team grabbed the attention of nautical archeologists with the unearthing of ship timbers, limestone anchors, steering oars, and hanks of marine rope. The precisely beveled deck beams, hull planks, and copper fittings belong to the oldest deep sea vessels ever found, dating back at least 3,800 years.

The craft appear to have been up to 70 feet long, powered by rowers and sail and capable of navigating deep seas.

“This is exciting stuff, important,’’ said Shelley Wachsmann, a top authority on Bronze Age ships at Texas A&M University’s Institute of Nautical Archaeology. He is not directly involved with Bard’s research.“She’s found the first fragments of an ancient Egyptian seagoing vessel - a ship that actually sailed in pharaonic times,’’ Wachsmann said."

Who Should Own the Rosetta Stone? - TierneyLab Blog - NYTimes.com

Who Should Own the Rosetta Stone? - TierneyLab Blog - NYTimes.com

BBC NEWS | Middle East | The quest to regain Egypt's antiquities

BBC NEWS | Middle East | The quest to regain Egypt's antiquities

"I'm not asking for all the artefacts of the British Museum to come to Egypt," says Zahi Hawass, the secretary general of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities.

"I'm only asking for the unique cultural objects," he added, referring to items of great archaeological value, such as the Rosetta Stone....

Also on his wish list is the 3,500-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti, wife of the famous Pharaoh Akhenaten, on show at the newly re-opened Neues Museum in Berlin, Germany.

Other items include a statue of Hemiunu, the architect of the Great Pyramid at Giza - also in Germany; the bust of Anchhaf, builder of the Chepren Pyramid - at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; and a painted Zodiac from the Dendera temple, which is kept at the Louvre."

Read the rest here.

The Rosetta Stone and Similar Artefacts : Findings - A Case in Antiquities for 'Finders Keepers' - NYTimes.com

At its Global Edition Science in the New York Times, John Tierney in his November 16, 2009 article focuses on Findings - A Case in Antiquities for 'Finders Keepers', writing:

"Zahi Hawass regards the Rosetta Stone, like so much else, as stolen property languishing in exile. "We own that stone," he told Al Jazeera, speaking as the secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities."

Tierney's article is an excellent analysis of the whys and why-nots of returning artefacts to the country of their origin.

Although we are very much in favor of the return of many artefacts to the country of their origin, Egypt in return must become much more liberal in the permissions that it grants for archaeological excavations in Egypt by mainstream institutions and there must be much more objective DNA analysis of mummies etc. It can not be that important archaeological finds are not properly analyzed by objective and unbiased scientific studies, as has not been the case recently in some studies of Egyptian artefacts conducted only be Egyptian scholars. Moreover, it can not be that permission is not given to make things such as DNA analysis to resolve important questions about the origins of the Pharaohs.

Whoever claims that the spoils of Pharaonic Egypt belong to him, will have to prove who the originators of Pharaonic culture actually were, and, as we have long alleged, these are the Hebrews. The current leadership and inhabitants of Egypt entered the country much more recently and actually have nothing to do with the Pharaohs.

IN addition, had the Rosetta Stone not been taken to Great Britain, the decipherment of the hieroglyphs would not have happened as it did, and the face of Egyptology - if it existed at all today - would be much different.

Ancient Egypt Weblog Word Cloud

Here is the word cloud for the Ancient Egypt Weblog from Wordle:

Bithiah Moses Royal Pharaonic Genealogy

We have for many years argued our incontrovertible view that Moses was born ca. 1700 BC, that his life history is found in the Egyptian monuments and that there was even a Tomb of Moses . We are now able to add much more analysis to this topic, which appears further below highlighted and in part marked in red. Here is what Chris Bennett has written:

"Nevertheless, there does appear to be a prima facie case here for an Egyptian princess with descendants amongst the Judahites."

Various postings from soc.genealogy.medieval regarding the genealogy of the Pharaonic Royal Family have been compiled by F.A. Doria under the title: A 4000–Year Old Descent from Antiquity: From the 12th Egyptian Dynasty to the Capetians and Beyond, 1995–1998, Analysis of the descent by Chris Bennett, Comments and discussion by C. Settipani and N. Taylor, May 2001.
See http://erwan.gil.free.fr/modules/freepages/pharaons/ramses_II.pdf

We reproduce the relevant part of that .pdf below since it definitely supports our view that the Biblical version of the early life of Moses is found in the Pharaonic genealogy of the 12th Dynasty and the Intermediate Period. Moses lived during that era.

The article begins below with a Pharaonic genealogical "descent from antiquity" (DFA).

Note especially that what Steiner writes in Footnote 1 is wrong insofar as he incorrectly and artificially seeks Moses in the reign of Ramses II even though there is no evidence anywhere that Moses lived in that era. Important is what Bennett writes in Footnote 1 regarding a possible Jewish "hereditary princess" somewhere in the Pharaonic genealogy, which, as we show in the course of our discussion, meshes perfectly with the 12th Dynasty and Intermediate Period.

The material in brackets and/or in red has been added by the Ancient Egypt Weblog:

__________________start of the quoted article

"1 The descent

The line goes as follows: [Footnote 1]

12th dynasty

1. Sen–Wosret, ancestor of the 12th Dynasty. Son:
2. Amenemhat I, d. 1962 b.C., first king, 12th Dynasty. Son:
3. Sen–Wosret I, co–regent and then sole ruler for 45 years. Son:
4. Amenemhet II, buried at Dahshur. Son:
5. Sen–Wosret II, built pyramid at Illahun. Son:
6. Sen–Wosret III fought in Palestine and Nubia. Father of:
7. NN. Father of:
8. Amenemhet III, d. 1797 b.C., ruled for 46 years. Father of:
• NN. Follows.
• NN. Father of:
– Amenemhet IV, ruled for a brief time. Father of Queen Sebeknefru,
last of the 12th Dynasty.
9. NN. Child:
10. NN. Child:

Intermediate period

11. Kemi, a daughter,[Footnote 2] who married Ha–Ankhef, God’s Father; parents of Ha–Ankhef were Nehi and Senebtisi. Son: [emphasis added by the Ancient Egypt Weblog]
12. Khaneferre Sebekhotep IV, king c. 1737–1727. M. Queen Tjani. Child: [emphasis added by the Ancient Egypt Weblog, Khaneferre was the name of the king under whom Moses was born, according to Artapanus]
13. Sebekhotep, hereditary princess.[Footnote 3] [emphasis added by the Ancient Egypt Weblog, this was Bithiah, the "hereditary" Jewish daughter of the pharaoh, who adopted Moses at the urging of Moses' sister Miriam, Exodus 2:4-8 ] M. Senebhanef, vizier under (probably) Mernerferre Ay, king of all Egypt c. 1713–1690 [emphasis added by the Ancient Egypt Weblog, MER-nfr is Biblical Mered, and the husband of Bithiah, called Jehudiah, the Jewess, in the Bible at 1 Chronicles 4:18, who bore three sons, Jered, Gedor and Jekuthiel. Mered also had three brothers, Jether, Epher, and Jalon, 1 Chronicles 4:17 ].[Footnote 4] Child:
14. Mentuhotep. Died during the reign of her husband.[Footnote 5] Husband, king Sekhemre–sementawi Djehuti, c. 1660 BC; reigned 3y ears. Parents of: [emphasis added by the Ancient Egypt Weblog: No, the three brothers are either the 3 sons of Mered and Bithiah or the 3 brothers of Mered - it looks as if they are one and the same - the Footnote forebodingly says the parentage is certain - why that necessity of statement?- and exactly the opposite is true]
15. One of three brothers: [emphasis added by the Ancient Egypt Weblog: a battle for succession between brothers and/or sons?]
either Sekhemre–se’ankhtawi Neferhotep III (who
reigned 1 year?), or Sekhemre–seusertawi Sebekhotep VIII (reigned for 16
years?—a 4th year is known inscriptionally) or even Se’ankhenre Mentuhotep
VII (formerly VI) (reigned for a single year?).[Footnote 6] One of them is
the father [Footnote 7] of: [emphasis added by the Ancient Egypt Weblog, this statement is false, as Footnote 7 suggests]
16. Sekhemre-shedtawi Sebekemsaf I (formerly II) [emphasis added by the Ancient Egypt Weblog, this is Moses], whose tomb was desecrated by 20th dynasty tomb robbers. M. Queen Nubkhas. Parents of:
17. Nubkheperre Inyotef VII (formerly V) [emphasis added by the Ancient Egypt Weblog: The Biblical name of the wife of Moses is Ziporrah and this is Nubhkeperre, with ZI incorrectly read by the Egyptologists as Nubkhe. This is the WIFE of Moses. The hieroglyph is the symbol used for precious metals and the word is Indo-European, as e.g. Russian Serebro or German Silber "silver". Ziporrah is the daughter of Jethro, a Midianite i.e. a Palestinian.], king for at least 3y ears (probably much more) c. 1600 b.C.[Footnote 8] M. Queen Sebekemsaf, almost certainly the daughter of Horhorkhuwaytef, governor of Edfu, and Sebeknakht, a king’s daughter. Which king? Se’ankhenre Mentuhotep VII (see 15. above) or one of the other two candidates;[Footnote 9] mother is Queen Satmut, known to be wife of a Theban king Mentuhotep of this period. Parents of:
18. Sekhenre–wahkhau Rahotep (or, less likely, Sekhenre–wadjkhau Sebekemsaf II (formerly I), his predecessor).[Footnote 10] [emphasis by the Ancient Egypt Weblog, this is Biblical Nun ]

17th dynasty

M. Tetisheri.[Footnote 11] Tetisheri was the daughter of Cenna (Tenna), m. to Neferu; XVII Dynasty.[Footnote 12]

[ __________footnotes to the article ]

[Footnote 1]
From an early 2000 post to the gen–med list by Chris Bennett [link added by LexiLine]:
“I have recently come across an article which may be of interest (R. C. Steiner, “Bitte–Ya, daughter of Pharaoh, and Bint(i)–’Anat daughter of Ramses II,” Biblica 79:3 (1998) 394—Biblica is now available online at http://www.bsw.org/project/biblica/index.htm [Ancient Egypt Weblog note: no longer available at that link, abstract at http://www.bsw.org/?l=7179 ], but this particular article is the only article omitted from the 1998 online collection [Ancient Egypt Weblog note: it is still omitted as of this date]). Steiner discusses a certain Bithiah, daughter of pharaoh, mentioned as the wife of Mered in a collection of genealogies of the tribe of Judah. He argues that the name Bithiah disguises an original “Bint–Anath,” known as a daughter of Ramses II. [emphasis added by the Ancient Egypt Weblog, Ramses II - who we claim is King Solomon - had at least a hundred children and seeking some artificial name similarity to one of them is absurd] Noting that the ancestor of the line discussed, Ezra, is in some way a relative of Caleb, who was a companion of Joshua, and that Mered’s grandsons were named as founders of the cities of Gedor, Socor and Zanoah, he argues that Mered must be dated to the 12/11th centuries BC. On this basis, he suggests that Bithiah was a D20 (20th Dynasty) princess Bint–Anath, perhaps a [grand]daughter of Ramses III.

FWIW there is at least one known case of an Egyptian princess, Nebetia daughter of the king’s son SiAtum, who was almost certainly a king’s granddaughter (likely, of Amenhotep III), bearing the title s3t nsw—“king’s daughter”—probably indicating that she was born in the lifetime of her grandfather. However I see no reason the Judahites would have conformed to this nicety of Egyptian practice, I think they would have been happy to accord the title to any descendant of a pharaoh.

Anyway, I’ve just been checking what Chronicles actually has to say about her. Its not much. The relevant text is as follows (KJV, King James Version):

(17) And the sons of Ezra were, Jether, and Mered, and Epher, and Jalon: and she bare Miriam, and Shammai, and Ishbah the father of Eshtemoa. (18) And his wife Jehudijah bare Jered the father of Gedor, and Heber the father of Socho, and Jekuthiel the father of Zanoah. And these are the sons of Bithiah the daughter of Pharaoh, which Mered took. (19) And the sons of his wife Hodiah the sister of Naham , the father of Keilah the Garmite , and Eshtemoa the Maachathite .

It is clear that she was a mother of Mered’s sons, but the wording is unclear (at least in the KJV and to me) as to exactly who they are, it rather looks like they have been elided at some point. However, one online interpretation I found suggests that Bithiah is the ”she” of verse 17, and certainly this works if you assume the genealogies are constructed according to a nesting principle. OTOH , Steiner clearly regards the descendants of Ishbah listed in verse 18 as descendants of a second wife of Mered, presumably Hodiah. Whatever, these genealogies are totally outside my expertise to evaluate and I present them solely FWIW.

Nevertheless, there does appear to be a prima facie case here for an Egyptian princess with descendants amongst the Judahites.

Link her up to the line of David somehow, and the problem of an Egyptian DFA becomes reduced to that of a Davidic DFA. Whether we’re better off or not is up to you to judge!” [End of Footnote 1, emphasis added by the Ancient Egypt Weblog]

[Footnote 2]
There is a JAMS article by C. Bennett where he presents a suggestion, based on the Westcar Papyrus, that Kemi may have been descended from Amenemhat III of the 12th dynasty. C. Bennett (CB, in the next footnotes) regards this as an interesting speculation rather than a serious case. [emphasis added by the Ancient Egypt Weblog, yes, Kemi was the daughter of Amenemhet]

[Footnote 3]
A hereditary princess was not necessarily a king’s daughter, but there are instances of this period where known king’s daughters are only described by this title. Paternity of Sebekhotep depends on this supposition plus some chronological dead reckoning. Tjani was his wife but not necessarily the mother of Sebekhotep (CB). [emphasis added the Ancient Egypt Weblog]

[Footnote 4]
Probably identical with Senebhanef, controller of the hall, son of Yauyebi, vizier under (probably) Wahibre Yauyebi, king c. 1723-1713 and Renressonb, certainly daughter of Id, Herald of Adhur-nakht (CB).

[Footnote 5]
The connection to parents given here is virtually certain (CB). [emphasis by the Ancient Egypt Weblog, the connection is in fact quite uncertain]

[Footnote 6]
Brotherhood is supposed because of naming patterns and other genealogical indications in the later dynasty (CB).

[Footnote 7]
The next step on this line is based on the pattern of prenomens and the theory that the succession system in this dynasty was fratrilineal (CB).

[Footnote 8]
Almost certainly the brother of Sekhemre–wepma’et Inyotef V (formerly VI) (“the Elder”), who was certainly the son of a king (CB).

[Footnote 9] The proposed identify of her father is based on chronological plausibility and a known association with Edfu.

[Footnote 10]
These kings, and their predecessors back to about 1660 b.C., ruled in Upper Egypt only. There is reason to believe that his principal wife was a queen Sebekemsaf-Haanhkes, king’s wife, king’s sister and king’s daughter. Art–historical and collateral genealogical data place him in this period. Juggling the possibilities, we arrive as this as the most likely step (CB).

[Footnote 11]
The theory that Tetisheri married Ta’o I, although of very long standing, is a pure guess, based solely on the facts that Ta’o I was probably Ta’o II’s immediate predecessor and that Tetisheri, the daughter of commoners, married a king. The only solid indicator of Ta’o’s position is that he was called Ta’o–o, meaning “Ta’o the Elder” (though one respected expert, Claude Vandersleyen, disputes the evidence that he was called Ta’o at all—hypercritically). By analogy with a slightly earlier king Inyotef “the Elder,” who was elder brother of a king Inyotef, Ta’o I was probably brother to Ta’o II. It is a well–documented, if confusing, custom of the period to give many children the same name. But, Teti-sheri did marry a king. Who, we don’t know. Here is the best guess (CB).

[Footnote 12]
Tetisheri’s name (“little Teti”) suggests that she was related to a noble family of this period where the name Teti is prominent. Tetihemet, nurse of Queen Ahmes–Nefertari, the queen being Tetisheri’s granddaughter, also came from this family. While only fragments of the family’s genealogy are traceable, we can trace it from Teti son of Minhotep, an opponent of King Nubkheperre Inyotef. (CB)."

_______end of our quote of the quoted article ,
although the article is much longer than this, so take a look here for the original

Happy Halloween 2006 : Happy Halloween 2006 : This is our Ancient Egypt Cat Pumpkin

Happy Halloween 2006 : This is our Ancient Egypt Cat Pumpkin
Cats were revered in Ancient Egypt

HAPPY HALLOWEEN 2006.
Cats were revered in Ancient Egypt
See The Role of Cats in Ancient Egypt