| Egyptian Silver Cat Goddess Bastet on Rosetta Stone.
Approximate Size: 1 1/4 in. height by 1 in. wide.
Approximate Weight: 11.3 GRAMS
Bastet was a goddess of ancient Egypt who was represented by the cat. Bastet’s cultural center was at Bubastis, in the Nile Delta. She was the protector of pregnant women and the pleasure-loving goddess who served as the patroness of music and dance. Bastet was also believed to protect men from demons and diseases. The goddess was considered the personification of the warming rays of the sun on the Nile. She was normally shown as a woman with a cat’s head, holding a sistrum (musical instrument) and the sign of life, the ANKH. She was also represented by the figure of a cat, and cats were considered sacred to her.
The goddess remained popular to Roman times. Her festivals at Bubastis were some of the most well attended in Egypt. People set out on festooned barges, and music accompanied all who made the pilgrimage to her shrine. The festival was a time of pranks as well as another designated period of intoxication. A gigantic parade ended the celebration, and on that day few Egyptians were sober!
The Rosetta stone is a portion of a large black basalt stela, which was discovered in 1799 near the Rosetta branch of the Nile by one of Napoleon’s engineers. The stone passed into the hands of the British, who placed it in the British Museum in London. It is inscribed with lines of hieroglyphs, demotic, and Greek. It was the key to the translation of hieroglyphs by Thomas Young and Jean-Francois Champollion. | 
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