Tests show cat in the attic is ancient mummy
A man who found a dusty stuffed cat in his attic has discovered it is a 2,000-year-old mummy.
Robert Gray, 56, found the strange-looking artefact in his loft where it had sat for the past 50 years.
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Robert Gray and Royal Cornwall Museum curator Jane Marley with the 2000-year-old mummified cat which was found in Mr Gray's loft in Cornwall
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The 2000 year old mummified cat which was found in the loft of a house in Cornwall. See SWNS story SWCAT: The mummified remains of an ancient Egyptian cat preserved for more than 2,000 years have been found gathering dust in an attic. B&B owner Robert Gray inherited the bandaged artefact when his father died in 1984 but assumed it was stuffed with rags. Nearby three decades on he finally decided to investigate the arcane package and took it along to a vet. To his amazement a series of x-rays revealed the outline of a perfectly preserved puss - complete with its face, ears, spine and brain.
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X-rays reveal the preserved puss has a face, ears, spine and brain
He thought the feline-shaped "pile of rags" was a stuffed cat so he took it to a vet's for an X-ray. Incredibly the series of images revealed the outline of a perfectly preserved ancient puss – complete with face, ears, spine and brain.
Experts at the Royal Cornwall Museum have now verified the remarkable find as a 2,000-year-old Egyptian mummy, worth £2,000.
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Robert, an actor and B&B owner, of Portscatho, inherited the bandaged artefact when his father died in 1984 but assumed it was a fake.
He said: "My father acquired the cat in the 1970s as a token of thanks from a museum. It's been in the loft languishing there for 50 years.
"It's perfectly bandaged up and a very interesting item. Apparently interior designers love this sort of thing, as ghoulish as it sounds."
Ancient Egyptians mummified animals as religious offerings or to ensure their beloved companions would follow them into the afterlife.
Mr Gray's father, Egyptologist Peter Gray, was originally given the mummy as a gift in the 1970s.
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