This is a statuette containing a mummified kitten.

It is from Saqqara. Bastet was the cat-goddess and local deity of the town of Bubastis. In the late and Ptolemaic Periods (about 747-30 BCE) the Egyptians killed and mummified various animals. The mummified animal was given to the relevant god as an offering. Animal mummies were sometimes placed inside coffins or shrine boxes made of wood or bronze. Their shape shows the contents. X-rays show that this wooden coffin, in the shape of a seated tabby cat, holds a mummified kitten. This is a cat shaped hollow box, containing a mummified kitten. It is made from a cat’s body wrapped in linen in a wooden coffin. We do not know how old this object is.