The Egyptian people of the Predynastic period show that even before domestication, mankind was familiar with these animals. Archaeologists unearthed wild cat remains that were consciously put into human graves in Predynastic sites such as al-Badari and Abydos (CITE). In the eleventh Dynasty, there was a painting found at Koptos, Egypt that depicted a cat sitting behind the feet of a woman; this activity and depiction suggest that the woman had some kind of protection and control over the cat. By the Twelfth dynasty archaeologists were making discoveries of up to seventeen mummified cats, with what they speculate was offerings of milk, in the tombs of the elite; suggesting that these animals had some kind of significance in the lives of humans
