Domestic cat and Romans – NRC

The domestic cat has spread more slowly across the world than previously thought, according to new research in Europe and China. The kitty tame mouse catcher (Felis catus) did not come to Europe as early as 6,000 years ago with early farmers from the Middle East, as previously thought. New DNA analyzes of modern cats and of 87 fossil cats from Europe and Anatolia make it much more likely that the first domestic cats only set foot on European soil in the first millennium BC. The oldest known domestic cat from Europe dates from the first century BC and was found in a Roman fortress on the Danube, in Mautern, Austria. The older cats appear to all be wild European cats (Felis sylvestris).

Few cat fossils are known from the first millennium BC, the researchers suspect that the Austrian cat was not the first in Europe. It appears that the Romans spread the cats across Europe, possibly from North Africa. The research led by the Italians Marco De Martino and Claudio Ottone (both University of Rome) was published this week in Science.

From a completely different study, also published this week, in Cell Genomicsit appears that the domestic cat also arrived late in China: from the eighth century AD, probably as an escort of caravans along the Silk Road. The oldest known Chinese domestic cat (from about 730 AD) was found in Tongwancheng, a junction of the Silk Road in Northwest China (750 km from Beijing). Genetically it is clear that this cat comes from the Middle East. It has also been halfway along the Silk Road, in Dzhankent, Kazakhstan found a house catfrom a slightly later period (ca. 775–940 AD). From DNA analysis of the Tongwancheng cat, the researchers were able to further deduce that he or she probably had a tabby coat with white spots. It is striking that in the ninth century the oldest known cat drawing in China appears (in the tomb of Zhao Yi in Anyang) a cat with white spots is depicted.

This relatively late arrival in China does not mean that Chinese farmers were previously without rat and mouse hunters. An unexpected twist in it Cell Genomics-examination of a total of 22 fossil cat bones from all over China, it is found that specimens of the Bengal tiger cat were found between 5,400 and 2,200 years ago (Prionailurus bengalensis) appear to have been at home with Chinese farmers. Unfortunately, it is not clear to what extent this small feline, no heavier than a domestic cat at three to seven kilos, was domesticated. That is a process that is accompanied by genetic changes, much tamer behavior and usually smaller brains, and that could not be deduced from the bones or the DNA examined.

9,500 years ago in Cyprus

All current domestic cats are descended from wild cats Felis lybica lybica (the African wildcat, also found in the Middle East). And for twenty years, the archaeological discovery of a cat skeleton in a Cypriot human grave dating back 9,500 years has been considered the beginning of cat domestication, but in reality that skeleton could just as well have come from a wild cat. It is difficult to distinguish the bones of a wild cat from those of a domestic cat.

Undeniably, the domestic cat played a domesticated role in Egypt from about 3,500 years ago. The homely cat scenes on the paintings in tombs can only mean one thing. They eat fish under the dining table and chase mice. The Egyptian goddess Bastet has a cat’s body. There is evidence in Egyptian cat burials that domestication may have begun there as early as 6,000 years ago.

That early love of cats in Egypt gave rise to the idea that cats would have spread around the world with the spread of agriculture. It is also likely that cats and humans found each other because people were bothered by rats and mice that ate their grain, and cats were excellent at hunting these vermin. The question now is whether that function also promoted the initial spread. For example, recent research into the spread of chickens around the world showed that the initial spread often occurred for religious reasons or because of the chicken as a status object. That could also have happened to the cat, the researchers now write Science as Cell Genomics.

In enter a comment Science cat expert and evolutionary biologist Jonathan Losos praises the new research, but he also warns about the gaps that still exist in the knowledge of domestic cat evolution. Not only is there still very little genetic data on cats from between 4,000 to 2,000 years ago, especially from Africa and the Middle East. A few new genomes from that time can suddenly change the analysis again. And the question is also: how do the quite old cat drawings from Greece and Italy fit into the new analysis? For example, of a cat chasing a duck, depicted on a 3,600 year old Greek dagger? But that could also be a wild cat. Or the statue is a copy of an Egyptian original.

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