The cats in Mesopotamia

The cat was familiar in Mesopotamia, and even important: it is the only domestic animal mentioned in the creation of the world as recounted by the I millennium tablet, which also bears the Babylonian world map. So, why cats are seldom represented? In Egypt, cats were

The Babylonian map of the world (from https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_1882-0714-509)

frequently represented on all media especially from the New Kingdom. There are also cat cemeteries, cats mummies, and even a cat goddess (Bastet). On the contrary, in Mesopotamia there is not a deity related to cats, few texts mention them and their representation is even rarer. It is generally admitted that cats are not represented until the first millennium BCE or the very end of the second. Is this interpretation true? Or are we simply unable to identify cats?

Archaeozoological discoveries in recent decades¹ have led to the discovery of four cat species: felis chaus quite big (also called ‘jungle cat’ in English and ‘chat des marais’ in French); felis ocreata iraki (pale Eastern wild cat); felis silvestris (the wild cat); and felis catus (domestic cat). Even mesopotamian texts relating to cats, which are essentially proverbs, divinatory texts, lexical lists and medical texts, distinguish between different species: the domestic cat (Akkadian šuranu, Sumerian SA); the wild cat (Akkadian murašû and Sumerian SA.A.RI); and three cat species that are defined by the Akkadian word zirqatu: what Sumerians call SA.A.GAL, “big cat”, and SA.A.SI “horned cat” and SA.A.SIG “horned cat”.

These archaeozoological data are supplemented by data obtained ex silentio: archaeozoologists have been able to identify mouse and rat bones at numerous sites, but not cats’ bones. So, in these sites there must have been some cats to fight the Muridae² and protect the food stocks.
From a chronological point of view, archaeozoological data in Mesopotamia extend from the Neolithic (Jarmo, Tell el ‘Oueili for example) to the Bronze Age (Tell Razuk, Tell Abqa). This suggests that the domestication of cats goes back a long way. Even Akkadian terms for domestic cats date back to the third millennium BC: šuranu is attested in Old Akkadian and murašu a little later.

Protodynastic cylinder seal from Ur (from Legrain 1936: n.348).

Despite the ancient presence of cats in archaeozoological and textual data, their representations are much rarer. This is very curious, given that Mesopotamian iconography offers a rich repertoire of animals in all media (ceramics, terracotta, bas-relief and ronde-bosse, glyptics, painting, and even on some garments). For a long time, it was considered that the first representation of a cat appeared at the beginning of the first millennium. On the contrary, the cat is already depicted in some seals from the 3rd millennium BC. The cat is also depicted in three kudurru: one unfinished, dated to the end of the second millennium BC, another dated to Marduk-nādin-aḫḫē (1095-1078 BC), and the other to Šamaš-šum-ukin (668-648 BC).

BM 116790, hematite stamp seal from Ur, Jemdet Nasr period, (from https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_1924-0920-51))

In the round, there are various representations of cats, some certain, others uncertain. From Uruk comes a copper statue of a cat nursing her kittens. A hematite seal from the Jemdet Nasr period (3100-2900 BCE) found in Ur features a cat’s face and a curled-up form suggesting a cat. In the north-western palace of Nimrud, a bronze figurine was found representing a quadruped identified sometimes as a cat, sometimes as a dog.

Tablet 45 from Šumma alu is for cats. It shows cats’ normal attitudes (crying, murmuring, running, vomiting), abnormal attitudes (imitating the verses of other animals: barking, squealing, braying, neighing), their colors and actions (actions at the window, in the house, jumping on people, etc.).
The section on cat colors is particularly interesting:

“27’ If a white cat is seen in a man’s house, hardship will afflict that land
28’ If a black cat is seen in a man’s house, that land will experience good fortune.
29’ If a red cat is seen in a man’s house, that land will become rich.
30’ If a multicolored cat is seen in a man’s house, that land will not prosper.
31’ If a yellow cat is seen in a man’s house, that land will acquire a good reputation.”
(Freedman 2017: 44)

This section isn’t very long, and doesn’t go into all the possibilities of cat coats. Indeed, there are only five attested colors (white, black, red, multi-coloured and yellow), and two (yellow and white) are rather strange: yellow coats don’t exist; white coats are rare, depending on partial or total genetic albinism. Unlike today, the black cat is lucky, as well as the yellow cat and even more the red cat. The white cat is the only unlucky, while the multicolored cat is neutral. This section of Šumma alu is historically important, as it demonstrates that from the very beginning, the color of a cat’s fur was linked to its behavior. Or rather, it’s this human belief in the relationship between color and behavior that makes humans act differently with cats of different colors.

Unusual actions, such as urinating or defecating on a man, are more often detailed than more common actions, such as leaning towards the window, which are usually mentioned briefly. Urinating or defecating on a man brings him good luck. On the other hand, if the cat urinates at the window, it brings bad luck (a man will die), probably due to the liminal value of windows and doors.
An interesting and unfortunately incomplete action is found in line 56: if a man goes about his business, a cat passes from the man’s right to his left… a gap, unfortunately! So we won’t know whether going from right to left is lucky or not!
A crying cat always gives negative omina, and when several cats cry, the danger is not only personal (cat owner) but collective (the whole region):

“15’. If a cat cries a great deal in a man’s house, that land will wear the unkempt hair of mourning.
16’. If two cats cry in a man’s house, the owner of thehouse (or) the mistress of the house will die.
17’. If three cats cry in a man’s house, the owner of the house will die and that house will be dispersed.
18’. If four cats cry in a man’s house, that land […]
19’. If five cats cry in a man’s house, that land […]
20’. If six cats cry in a man’s house, Adad will flood that land.
21’. If seven cats cry in a man’s house, the land will be infected with mountain flood disease
22’. If eight cats cry in a man’s house, the land will be infected with mountain flood disease”

Hunting is a common action for a cat but in the whole tablet n.45 there is only one line dedicated to it and it is very unlucky: “if a cat kills a mongoose in a man’s house, that house will be dispersed”.

Bronze representation of a cat or dog (North West Palace of Nimrud), now in the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

The section dedicated to SA.A.GAL, (big cat), SA.A.RI, (wild cat) and SA.A.RI.RI (lynx) is built like the one dedicated to domestic cats. The gestures and places mentioned are the same as for the domestic cat, with a few exceptions. But the results are almost all negative. The big cat, the wild cat and the lynx bring no luck, even when talking, so the idea of ​​a talking cat is very old:

“if a big cat in a man’s house speaks-hand of Shamash, that house will go to ruin”

In the ancient Near East, animals have always been of great importance. As for the cat, this positive opinion focuses on the domestic form, while wild species are considered more ambivalently. Probably because they are seen as predators, while domestic cats were used to hunt rats and were valued as pets. But since murašu (wild cats) was used as a proper name (as šuranu, domestic cat), wild species enjoyed some consideration. This assimilation between man and animal proves that beyond their practical utility, man has felt some sympathy for cats, as their iconograghic representations attest. There is even a grave of a kitten aged eight months with a young human discovered in Cyprus and dating to 7300-7000 BCE ! Man and animal is not just an abstract research subject but a constant necessity since man began to domesticate other animals.

To deepen:
L. Battini, 2022. The cat, a hidden pet in Mesopotamia? Tablet 45 of Šumma alu and a method to identify this feline. Ash-sharq 6: 75–110.
Freedman, S. 2017. If a City Is Set on a Height: The Akkadian omen Series Šumma Alu Vol.III. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns.
W. Heimpel, 1976-1980. Katze. Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie
V: 488-489.
H. Limet, 1994. Le chat, les poules et les autres: le relais mésopotamien vers l’Occident? in L. Bodson (ed.) Des animaux introduits par l’homme dans la faune de l’Europe (Collection de l’histoire des connaissances zoologiques 5): 39-54. Liège: Université de Liege.
H. Limet, 1997. Animaux compagnons ou: de compagnie? La situation dans le Proche-Orient ancien, in L. Bodson (ed.) L’animal de compagnie: ses rôles et leurs motivations au regard de l’histoire (Colloque d’histoire des connaissances zoologiques 8): 53-73. Liège: Université de Liege.
Millet Albà, A. 2000. Les noms d’animaux dans l’onomastique des archives de Mari, in D. Parayre (ed.) Les animaux et les hommes dans le monde syro-mésopotamien aux époques historiques, Colloque International du 4 et 5 décembre 1998 à Lille (Topoi suppl. 2): 477-487.
Vigne, J.-D. 2021. D’où viennnent nos chats? La domestication des petits félidés, in Th. Bedossa and S. Jeannin (eds) Comportement et bien être du chat. Une approche interdisciplinaire: ch. 1. Dijon: Educagri.
Vigne, J.-D. and J. Guilaine 2004. Les premiers animaux de compagnie 8500 ans avant notre ère?… Ou comment j’ai mangé mon chat, mon chien et mon renard. Anthropozoologica 39: 249-273.

1. Small felines are difficult to identify, firstly because of the fragmentary state of the bones discovered. And secondly because domesticated cats are not far removed from wild ones: even the mitochondrial DNA can’t distinguish between domesticated and wild cats [↩]
2. family of mice and rats [↩]

Laura Battini

Chargée de Recherche au CNRS (UMR 7192 – PROCLAC, Paris), spécialiste d’architecture et d’iconologie syro-mésopotamienne

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