The thousand-year-old cat mummy has 5 legs and 3 tails

The results of the 3D scan reveal that the 2,500 year old mummy could be assembled from parts of many different cats .

Cat mummy at the French Museum of Fine Arts.(Photo: Sun).

Specialists at the French Institute of Archeology (INRAP) scan 2,500-year-old Egyptian mummies and reconstruct them in 3D. They took the mummy to the veterinary clinic for a photo shoot and were surprised to find that it was actually a product of parts of many different cats. The cat mummy has 5 hind legs and 3 incomplete tails. In particular, the animal has no ribs or backbone and the head is replaced by a woven ball of fiber.

"There are millions of animal mummies. Some are empty, others contain only one bone, sometimes the cat is still intact. Some researchers think we have an old monk's trick. Left "We are confident there are countless ways to mummify an animal. We will know more after we have photographed the body," said researcher at Theophane Nicolas.

Mummifying animals is not just a way to keep pets. Researchers believe that the ancient Egyptians offered animal mummies as a scapegoat or kept in the tomb to accompany them to the afterlife. The Egyptians loved cats and even worshiped the cat-headed goddess named Mafdet during the First Dynasty in 3400 - 3000 BC.

The cat mummy in the 3D shooting project has been on display at the Fine Arts Museum in Rennes, France, since the 1920s. The team did not reveal the exact location where the mummy was found.

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