Care for cats? So did people along the Silk Road more than 1,000 years ago

EurekAlert! ^ | July 9, 2020 | Martin-Luther-Universitat Halle-Wittenberg

[SunkenCiv]

The tomcat... did not have an easy life. "The cat suffered several broken bones during its lifetime," says Haruda. And yet, based on a very conservative estimate, the animal had most likely made it past its first year of life. For Haruda and her colleagues, this is a clear indication that people had taken care of this cat.

During a research stay in Kazakhstan, the scientist examined the findings of an excavation in Dzhankent, an early medieval settlement in the south of the country which had been mainly populated by the Oghuz, a pastoralist Turkic tribe. There she discovered a very well-preserved skeleton of a cat. According to Haruda, this is quite rare because normally only individual bones of an animal are found during an excavation, which prevents any systematic conclusions from being drawn about the animal's life... after its death, the tomcat was apparently buried and therefore the entire skull including its lower jaw, parts of its upper body, legs and four vertebrae had been preserved.

...Isotope analyses of bone samples also provided the team with information about the cat's diet. Compared to the dogs found during the excavation and to other cats from that time period, this tomcat's diet was very high in protein. "It must have been fed by humans since the animal had lost almost all its teeth towards the end of its life."

DNA analyses also proved that the animal was indeed likely to be a domestic cat of the Felis catus L. species and not a closely related wild steppe cat. According to Haruda, it is remarkable that cats were already being kept as pets in this region around the 8th century AD...

[SunkenCiv]

Credit: Maike Glöckner / MLU

[Varsity Flight]

Blue bag diet?

[SunkenCiv]

Here are the other GGG topics introduced since the previous Digest ping:

• 7th-8th Century Chapel Discovered on Uninhabited Little Skellig Island in Ireland [2020]
• Archaeologists Suggest Stonehenge's Huge Blocks Arrived by Land, Debunk Raft Theory [2020]
• Amber fossils unlock true color of 99-million-year-old insects [2020]
• Archaeologists Think They've Found The Oldest Viking Longhouse In Iceland [2020]
• Archaeology breakthrough: How NASA satellite exposed 8,000-year-old 'lost civilisations' [2020]
• Changing diets in Pictish Portmahomack [2020]
• DNA Inherited From Neanderthals May Increase Risk of Covid-19 [2020]
• Decades-old military plane wreckage found in Alaska glacier, may give families closure [2012]
• Gangsters vs. Nazis<br> How the Jewish mob fought American admirers of the Third Reich [2020]
• Giant 16-foot long dolphin that lived 25million years ago was an apex predator that feasted on 'large-bodied prey' just like a killer whale [2020]
• A History Of Enslavement And The Land Of The Free [2020]
• Iranian cave estimated to date over 63,000 years [Kaldar Cave] [2020]
• Israeli Archaeologists Find Ancient Artifacts from the Time of Ezra, Nehemiah [2020]
• Never Do an Enemy a Small Injury, Niccol -- Machiavelli (1469-1527) [2020]
• New evidence helps form digital reconstruction of most important medieval shrine [Thomas a Becket] [2020]
• New method solves old mystery: Hafnium isotopes clinch origin of high-quality Roman glass [2020]
• Polynesians, Native Americans made contact before European arrival, genetic study finds [2020]
• Renovations at Historic York Guildhall Reveal Human Remains, Roman Artifacts [2020]
• Time to cancel Darwin [2020]
• Trove of photos taken from US aircraft during WWII bombing of SW Japan city released [2020]
• VIDEO: How My Father Impersonated a General to Get Enemy Regiment to Surrender to Him [2019]
• Women, teenagers worked as potters in ancient Israel, scholars show [Gath] [2020]
• Yet Another Brazilian Museum Suffers Fire, Loss Of Specimens [2020]

[SunkenCiv]

You just know this topic is gonna cook.

[SunkenCiv]

I wonder if these medieval Central Asian people were carrying on a tradition passed down from the Hellenistic era. Back then, the cat was even regarded as a Muse. Yep, here it comes...

[SunkenCiv]

[SunkenCiv]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustafa_Kemal_Atat%25C3%25BCrk%2527s_personal_life

[SunkenCiv]

This was what I was trying to do:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustafa_Kemal_Atat%C3%BCrk%27s_personal_life#Love_of_nature

[TChad]

this tomcat's diet was very high in protein.

Um, yes. Cats are obligate carnivores.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnivore#Obligate_carnivores

[Redcitizen]

[SunkenCiv]

We're just lucky they haven't hunted out all the Obligates.

[smvoice]

Giant arid litter boxes makes for happy cats Miles and miles of blowing kitty litter

[ClearCase_guy]

Bubonic plague spread by fleas.
Plague is endemic to Central Asia, primarily in Marmot populations.
Plague spread along Silk Road, in part after Silk Road was diverted into Marmot territory as a result of Mongol conquests disrupting normal trade routes.
Eventually Fleas spread plague to rats which carried disease easily into human cities and ships.

More cats might have helped.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

“That’s Paul Schaeffer and his band over there....”

[SunkenCiv]

Even if it didn't, at least they had cats.

[SunkenCiv]

Litter is still a big export from Central Asia.

[GreyFriar]

I thought it said “cure for cats” when I first glanced at it.

[SunkenCiv]

There ain't no cure. :^)

[Flick Lives]

DNA analyses also proved that the animal was indeed likely to be a domestic cat of the Felis catus L. species and not a closely related wild steppe cat.

—

Yes, he’s the chief, he’s a king,
But above everything,
He’s the most tip top,
Steppe Cat!

source: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/tvthemes/topcatlyrics.html

[Tax-chick]

Good one.