Cats were called Mau in Ancient Egypt, and initially the animals attained an important place as the protectors of the country’s grain, as they killed rodents and snakes. The size of the bones and timing of the litters hints that humans may have kept the cats. Archaeologists know that cats later became an important part of Egyptian life and religion.

There is still much to learn about the history of cat domestication. The bones date back to between 3600 B.C. Only one deity, the goddess named Bastet, had the power to become a cat. To honor these treasured pets, wealthy families dressed them in jewels and fed them treats fit for royalty. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+.

and 1950 B.C… Analyzing the pattern of cat coats is one of the best ways for scientists to distinguish between wild and domesticated cats, since it is one of the few visible differences between the two.

Carol M. Highsmith, photographer. and 3800 B.C., which would be 2,000 years before the earliest known evidence of cat domestication in Egypt, archaeologists report in the May issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science.

Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter and Google+. The Cyprus cat burial suggests that felines and humans lived in close quarters very early in the Levant, the Eastern Mediterranean region that includes Cyprus as well as modern-day Israel, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.
Cat skeletons found in an elite cemetery in Hierakonpolis may have been sacrified and buried as part of some religious ritual. Several ancient Egyptian deities were depicted and sculptured with cat-like heads such as Mafdet, Bastet and Sekhmet, representing justice, fertility and power. That small age difference means the pairs didn't come from the same female. Future US, Inc. 11 West 42nd Street, 15th Floor, You will receive a verification email shortly.

NY 10036. The evidence from Ottoni’s study also gives an explanation for the way cats spread around the world. The deity Mut was also depicted as a cat and in the company of a cat.

This project was headed by Dr. Andrew Kitchener, a Zoologist at the National Museums of Scotland, who writes, "This shows that the origin of domestic cats was not Ancient Egypt - which is the prevailing view - but Mesopotamia and that it occurred much earlier than was thought. Moreover, various DNA comparisons also suggest that many species of modern cats may have been descended from the Egypt… All rights reserved.

Ottoni found that the recessive allele found in most tabby cats today that causes a blotched pattern did not appear in their study until the medieval period. Animals were revered for different reasons. This suggests that selective breeding for coat color did not appear until the medieval period, much later than the start of cat domestication (Ottoni and others 2017). Domesticated cats all come from wildcats called Felis silvestris lybica that originated in the Fertile Crescent in the Near East Neolithic period and in ancient Egypt in the Classical period. By studying ancient cat DNA from all over the world, the researchers found that cat domestication began in the Fertile Crescent (in the Neolithic period) and accelerated … 2020 National Geographic Partners, LLC. "It is likely that its long bones were broken during capture and that the animal was then held in captivity and taken care of," Van Neer said.
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After about 330 B.C., Egyptians even bred felines near temples to be sacrificed as offerings and mummified.

Bastet was a goddess who could become a cat. Cats Domesticated Themselves, Ancient DNA Shows, Cat identification: colors and coat patterns, Long before they conquered the Internet, cats took over the world, The palaeogenetics of cat dispersal in the ancient world, The relationship between coat color and aggressive behaviors in the domestic cat.

Receive mail from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors? Please refresh the page and try again. Thank you for signing up to Live Science. This allowed cats to spread across the world. The house cat was domesticated during the Middle Kingdom and was one of the most common house hold pets, next to dogs.

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