Chapter 5: Concealed Deposits: Dried, Mummified & Smoked cats

Wayne Perkins, ,

Main image: Mummified cat from the collection held by the ‘Museum in the Park,’ Stroud, Gloucestershire collection

Margaret M. Howard, “Dried cats” (1951). Image: © Man magazine.


In 1951, Margaret M. Howard outlined the key traits relating to deposits
of intentionally immured felines in her article, “Dried cats”. She
proposed three interpretations for the phenomena:

that the cats had
been placed in the buildings as a foundation sacrifice;

that they had
been accidentally enclosed or trapped in the wall cavities or underneath
floorboards,

or that they had been intended as vermin scarers


(Howard, 1951, p. 149).

Abby the cat is from the collection in the Epping Forest District Museum’s Collection. She is rare in that she was found in the wall of Waltham Abbey rather than a domestic context. Photo: © W Perkins 2024.


However, re-examination of these deposits using modern archaeological
techniques has revealed that none of those interpretations
adequately explains the circumstances in which many of the cats had
been immured. The prosaic explanation of a cat voluntarily entering a
void in the building fabric to die has long been dismissed.

On the contrary, evidence has shown that, in some cases, the cats had been posed
into hunting scenes (Merrifield, 1987, p. 129), “pegged” into place
(Howard, 1951, p. 149), affixed with wire or inserted into the wall cavity
“post mortem”—which had allowed for posing and placement prior
to rigor mortis (Manning, 2014, p. 65). In some examples, it is apparent that there had been an attempt to desiccate or smoke the cats prior to their insertion (Merrifield, 1987, p. 129), or that they had been placed with other mummified animals such as rats and mice (V. Hart, 2013).

This is a short excerpt from ‘A Consensus of Symbols: patterns in Ritual Building Protection’ out now, published by Aeon Books. Please refer to that book for the references.

https://spirit.aeonbooks.co.uk/product/consensus-of-symbols/95394

Illustrated Talks & Guided Tours 2026


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Published by Wayne Perkins

I am an archaeologist with over twenty years of experience. After a decade or so working as a volunteer on excavations in the 1990’s, I undertook my degree in Archaeology at the University of Birmingham. In the last year of my degree I helped to supervise the university’s annual excavations. Directly after my exams I began my career in Commercial Archaeology as a Field Archaeologist with Oxford Archaeology and remained there for four years. Anticipating a career in archaeology in France I volunteered on excavations at Rom and at Prisse-la-Charriere, Niort (for Poitiers & Rennes University respectively). In due course I worked for the States’ premier scientific organization, I.N.R.A.P. (Institut Nationale des Récherches Archéologiques Préventives) as well as for a number of private companies. I returned to the UK in 2013 and resumed my role as a Supervisor, undertaking projects around Oxfordshire with John Moore Heritage Services before moving to London in 2014. I now undertake Historic Building Surveys and supervise urban excavations in the City of London as well as overseeing rural excavations in surrounding Sussex, Surrey & Kent. Wayne Perkins BA Hons (Archaeology) ACIfA (Associate Member, Chartered Institute for Archaeologists)

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