Researchers at the University of Oxford (UK) have made a groundbreaking discovery in the popular field of . A new study reveals that the transition of cats from wild hunters to domestic companions occurred much later than previously thought and in a different location.
Analysis of bones unearthed by British archaeologists indicates that the close relationship between and humans began only a few thousand years ago—not in the Levant, as scientists had believed, but in North Africa.
“Cats are everywhere; we make TV shows about them, they dominate the internet… The relationship we have with them today began only 3,500 to 4,000 years ago, not 10,000 years ago as previously thought,” emphasized Professor Greger Larson, the lead author of the study.
What Did the Scientists Discover?
All modern cats descend from a single species—the African wildcat. Scientists have long been intrigued by how, where, and when these animals lost their wildness and developed close ties with humans. Until now, they had proposed various theories, often getting it wrong.
To unravel this mystery, the university team analyzed extracted from cat bones found at archaeological sites in Europe, North Africa, and Anatolia. The researchers dated the bones, analyzed the DNA, and compared the results with the gene pool of modern cats, as reported by BBC.
The new data confirmed that cat domestication did not begin at the dawn of agriculture in the Levant but several millennia later somewhere in northern Africa.
“This is more of an Egyptian phenomenon,” noted Professor Larson. The new findings align with what we know about the land of the pharaohs, where cats were revered, immortalized in art, and mummified.
Once these became closer to humans, they began to spread across the globe and were enlisted to combat rodents on ships. Cats arrived in Europe only about 2,000 years ago, significantly later than previously believed.
As they traveled through Europe, cats made their way to Britain with the Romans and then ventured east along the Silk Road, eventually reaching China. Today, they can be found in every part of the world except Antarctica.
Wild Asian leopard cat
The authors of the new study also discovered that wild cats lived among humans in China long before domestic cats appeared there. This refers to leopard cats that inhabited Chinese settlements around 3,500 years ago.
The results of the study were published in the journals Science and Cell Genomics.
Photo: Unsplash
