Our pet dogs have been by our side for at least 20,000 years, evolving right along with us. True to their more elusive nature, the timeline of when cats domesticated is more murky. Our homespun feline friends appear to be a more recent arrival in some parts of the world, likely only arriving in Europe about 2,000 years ago. Their spread was assisted by the Roman military, with house cats ultimately reaching Britain by around 100 CE. The findings are detailed in a study recently published in the journal Science.
Initially, archaeologists believed that humans began to live with cats about 9,500 years ago in the Levant -- parts of the present-day eastern Mediterranean and Middle East. This timeline coincides with the beginning of the Neolithic era, when agriculture started to spread. The grains used in farming attracted rodents, which then enticed the wildcats to come and eat the rodents. Neolithic humans then likely kept the wildcats around to keep the rodents away, paving the way for domestication. Cat remains dating back to about 7500 BCE have been discovered in present-day Cyprus, indicating that the animals were a part of daily life by then.
Cats then became a staple in Ancient Egypt roughly 3,500 years ago. Unlike the more murky history during the Neolithic Age, Ancient Egyptian culture is full of cat references. Numerous cat remains have been found in tombs, as well as drawings of cats eating near humans. Bastet was a feline goddess typically associated with protection, fertility, and domesticity, and daughter of the sun god Ra.
Earlier studies using cats' mitochondrial DNA indicated that they may have made it to Europe from Turkey via Neolithic farmers about 6,000 years ago and later from Egypt. Genetically speaking, modern house cats are also different from the African wildcat native to both Egypt and Turkey. Still, a lack of archaeological evidence and problems with distinguishing domestic cats from their wild counterparts based on the DNA in their bones have left some major gaps in the house cats' history.
In this new study, a team analyzed the genomes of 70 ancient cats, dating back over the last 11,000 years (from about 9000 BCE to 19th century CE). The genomes were taken from bones found in archaeological sites in Europe and Turkey, along with 17 modern wildcats from parts of North Africa, Italy, and Bulgaria.
The genetic evidence indicates that modern cats did not arrive in Europe until roughly 2,000 years ago -- much more recently than they expected. This means that they were not brought over by those Neolithic farmers from Turkey or Egypt. After North African domestic cats were introduced, they spread in Europe via Roman military routes. Soldiers likely used the felines as a form of rodent control, just as Neolithic farmers did thousands of years earlier. Domestic cats eventually reached Roman Britain by the 1st century CE.
Additionally, these earlier cats from Europe and Turkey were genetically European wildcats. Hybridization -- where two genetically distinct parents create fertile offspring -- was likely behind this genetic split and not domestication.
Both ancient and modern Sardinian wildcats are also more closely related to North African wildcats than domestic cats. This indicates that they are not the descendants of a feral population of early domestic cats. Instead, humans brought wildcats to these Mediterranean islands where they did not naturally occur.
This study is part of Project FELIX, a European Union-funded effort to analyze over 800 archaeological samples of cats dating back 10,000 years, in order to gain insights into the cat-human relationship.
In a commentary on the study's findings, evolutionary biologist Jonathan Losos concluded, "Ever sphinxlike, cats give up their secrets grudgingly. Yet more ancient DNA is needed to unravel these mysteries of long ago." Losos was not an author on this study.