Adrija Sen
July 10, 2022
"As every cat owner knows, nobody owns a cat," are words attributed to American editor Ellen Perry Berkeley, a sentiment all cat owners across the world would relate to. So how did the unique companionship between these two unlikely creatures start?
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It has taken researchers and scientists quite some time and effort to solve the mystery of the human-cat friendship! While it seems like an easy task, the archaeological records don’t prove much when it comes to these furry companions since wild cats and domesticated cats have extremely similar skeletons.
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Sources believed the domestication of cats became popular only after Egyptian civilisation played its part by worshipping them as magical, divine and godlike beings. But new findings indicate that cat domestication was happening even during the predynastic period in Egypt, nearly 2000 years earlier.
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A cat skeleton discovered in a predynastic tomb (3700 BC) at Hierakonpolis in Egypt is considered evidence of ancient cats being friendly with humans much before we thought, even if they were not being domesticated yet.
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The discovery of a burial site on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus from 7500 B.C., in which a cat was buried with a human, is further evidence of this long association than previously believed. It pushed the likely domestication date back by another 1,500 years!
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The Chinese began domesticating the leopard cat and the western wildcat around 3,000 B.C for pest control. During the Sung Dynasty (960 – 1279), people cherished cats as loyal pets, and artists depicted them in paintings and sculptures. They still consider the cat a symbol of abundance and good luck.
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But in the middle ages of Europe, cats were considered demonic and associated with darkness and witchcraft, where the popes and high officials condemned them! But today, cats are one of the most popular and cherished pets in Europe by some poetic justice, having been brought to North and South America by early European settlers.
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What about Cats right here in India? In his book, Ancient India: history and culture, researcher Balkrishna Govind Gokhale describes a brick with the paw-prints of a cat and dog found at Kalibagan, an ancient Harappan site close to Delhi indicating their existence in the subcontinent.
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A study by the research journal Science in 2007 claims that all domestic cats are descended from a Middle Eastern wildcat, Felis sylvestris (cat of the woods). Some study authors speculated that cats were first domesticated in the Near East, where the process began about 12,000 years ago.
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It may seem like a bold claim, but the timelines match what we know about our evolution as a society. As predominant hunters, humans gained a lot from their friendship with dogs until settling down and growing food became a priority. But the storage of grain lured mice, and the mice attracted cats, who decided to stick around for the free food.
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It was a friendship meant to be! The cats were happy about the abundance of prey in the storehouses while the people were delighted by free pest control. It would not be amiss to say that cats really did choose humans. And in true cat fashion, they took their sweet time before deciding to bless us with their charming and adorable presence!
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