Posted on 04/09/2004 5:34:44 AM PDT by vannrox
The oldest known evidence of people keeping cats as pets may have been discovered by archaeologists.
The discovery of a cat buried with what could be its owner in a Neolithic grave on Cyprus suggests domestication of cats had begun 9,500 years ago.
It was thought the Egyptians were first to domesticate cats, with the earliest evidence dating to 2,000-1,900 BC.
French researchers writing in Science magazine show that the process actually began much earlier than that.
The evidence comes from the Neolithic, or late stone age, village of Shillourokambos on Cyprus, which was inhabited from the 9th to the 8th millennia BC.
Cat culture
"The cat we found in the grave may have been pre-domesticated - something in between savage and domestic. Alternatively, it's possible it was really domestic," Professor Jean Guilaine of the CNRS Centre d'Anthropologie in Toulouse, France told BBC News Online.
The cat (centre bottom) was killed to be buried together with its "master"
"We have this situation of the person and the cat. This same situation of men and dogs are known much earlier from the Natufian culture of Israel which dates to 12-11,000 BC."
The complete cat skeleton was found about 40 cm from a human burial. The similar states of preservation and positions of the burials in the ground suggest the person and the cat were buried together.
The person, who is about 30 years of age, but of unknown sex, was buried with offerings such as polished stone, axes, flint tools and ochre pigment.
Based on this the researchers argue that the person was of high status and may have had a special relationship with cats. Cats might have had religious as well as material significance to the stone age Cypriots, the French archaeologists add.
'Religious animal'
"It's difficult to say the cat was a religious animal but it probably played a role in the symbolic and imaginative world of these people," Prof Guilaine explained.
During the Neolithic, when agriculture was beginning to spread from the Near East, grain storage would have attracted large mice populations. So cats may have been encouraged to settle in villages to control the mice.
Shillourokambos was a thriving village in the late stone age
"If this hypothesis is true, cats could have been attracted into the villages as early as there were mice. These mice in the Near East were present as early as 12,000 years ago," co-author Dr Jean-Denis Vigne of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris.
It seems the eight-month-old cat in the Cypriot burial was killed in order to be buried with the person. The skeleton shows no signs of butchering, suggesting that it was treated as an individual in death.
But burnt cat bones from a similar period at the site, attest to the fact that humans did eat the animals on certain occasions.
The cat specimen is large and best resembles the African wildcat (Felis silvestris lybica), rather than present-day domestic cats.
There are no native feline species on Cyprus, so the authors presume any cats must have been introduced by humans.
Attacking barbarian hordes always make for lively discussion.
...from a safe distance... ;’)
Thus your large stone hurling, rather than hand to hand combat.
Ernie looks like he does not suffer fools gladly.
We have barn cats that can outwit, outlast and outfight most large dogs, but still grab a lap or a hearth as needed. Cats are opportunists who learned long ago that they can play the humans while doing just enough work to get by. Gotta love em’.
Interesting factoid. Waiting for the cat-bashing to begin....
Ha! That photo was taken when Ernie was a young buck. Now he's a blob...albeit an adorable and sweet furry blob. He is content to ride around the house on my left shoulder.
It is a North African Wildcat — Felis silvestris lybica.
That makes sense. I always take my cats with me when I take a nap.
Thank-you, Merry Christmas as well, for PINGING cat related news stories lists. =^..^=
That very same long-legged cat is in my backyard each morning chasing birds!
Doing what cats do best. =^..^=
You go next door to open them? Hide in the closet?
Always a pleasure.
Cats have two very sharp tools outside of claws, their noses and their hearing. =^..^=
I think it more likely that the person was buried with the cat to serve it in the afterlife. Opening cans, opening doors, etc.
... and their teeth if you’re not quick enough off the draw with dinner!
Quick cat fact: all cats, no matter the breed, carry the 'tiger' gene, meaning they always have the potential to produce offspring with stripes. It's their direct link to their wild roots.
“Dogs have owners, cats have servants”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.