The Key Marco cat: this hand-carved statue embodies the harmony of a lost civilisation with their gods

They say that cats have 9 lives. But what are these 9 lives enough for, if someone lives for, say, 1,500 years? According to estimates, the world-famous Key Marco cat with a special charm was carved 1,500 years ago. In 2019, it was finally able to return to his homeland, Marco Island, Florida.

You know us, we love all things cat! Especially when it is mysterious and eery and probably had a significant role in the development and formation of our world and culture.

Typical cat…

The cat was discovered by anthropologist Frank Hamilton Cushing in 1896 during an excavation on the island. The wooden figure was able to survive in such an almost flawless state because it was covered with a layer of mud, which ensured an oxygen-free environment and prevented decomposition. While many of the artefacts found there disintegrated almost immediately due to the air, the cat still shines today is a surprising detail.

“Perishable artifacts, like the Key Marco Cat, are rare in the archaeological record. Its significance lies in the information it holds about the human past, cultural diversity, and the ways that these issues can inspire researchers and the general public.” – explained by Torben Rick, Chairman of the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History.

The Key Marco cat is one of the finest pieces of pre-Columbian Native American art ever discovered in North America. Only about 15 cm tall, the mustached kitty is a charismatic anthropomorphic figurine carved from native hardwood (buttonwood) by the Calusa Indians. It is likely that it was carefully rubbed with animal fat for the patina, but it is also contributed to its preservation. It came home to Marco Island for the first time since its discovery in 2019, along with other items found on the same excavation, including a ceremonial mask, an alligator figure, a painted human figure and a sea turtle figure.

What makes it so important?

The willowy, kneeling cat statue, definitely reminds us of a slim female figure. But its real significance does not lie in this. The Calusa Indians, from whom this artwork probably originated, have already died out due to European influence. We can only pick up bits and pieces of their collapsed culture, like the city pigeons from the scraps of discarded pastries.

Meg Kassabaum, assistant curator for North America at the University of Pennsylvania’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology explained that with this discovery we can see what might be missing from the artifacts, because such objects are rarely preserved: “These particular artifacts are prime examples of the complex iconography used by pre-Columbian Floridians and probably had deep ritual significance to the people who created them. In particular, the paint that remains on the wooden objects serves as an important reminder of the level of detail and skill attained by pre-contact Native artists and gives just a hint of how beautiful these pieces would have been when they were made. The fact that they have survived so long is truly incredible and provides a nearly unique window into the past.”

The finder, Frank Hamilton Cushing, wrote about it: “…man-like being in the guise of a panther.  Although it is barely 6 inches in height, its dignity of pose may fairly be termed “heroic”, and its conventional lines are to the last degree masterly.

While the head and features – ears, eyes, nostrils and mouth – are most realistically treated, it is observable that not only the legs and feet, but also even the paws, which rest so stoutly upon the thighs or knees of the sitting or squatting figure, are cut off, unfinished; bereft, as it were, of their talons.  And this, I would note, is quite in accordance with the spirit of primitive sacerdotal art generally – in which it was ever sought to fashion the form of a God or Powerful Being in such wise that while its aspect or spirit might be startlingly shown forth, the powers associated with its living form might be so far curtailed, by the incompletion of some of its more harmful or destructive members, as to render its use for the ceremonial incarnation of the God at times, safe, no matter what his mood might chance, at such times, to be.”