The Spread of Cats
Today's house cats all come from a single type of wildcat. Researchers believe that it was originally from the Near East, in a region from modern-day Türkiye down to Lebanon. Around 10,000 years ago, farmers began storing grain. The grain attracted mice. Cats could help out with that.
The same type of cats also ruled in Ancient Egypt. They left their traces in statues and paintings. Researchers wondered how these two separate lines led to today's worldwide success of cats. Unlike other archaeologists, Eva-Maria Geigl studied DNA instead of bones.
Combining the genetic information with other records, the researchers figured out the cats' paths. After cats befriended the Near East farmers, they began to appear on farms in other places. One example is a 9,500-year-old cat buried in a human grave on the island of Cyprus. There were no wild cats on the island. They must have come from somewhere else. Humans must have brought them on a boat.
A second wave of cats began living with humans in Egypt 2,500 years ago. The new study shows that during Roman times, these Egyptian cats also began expanding through the Mediterranean. They mixed with the Near East cats and then went farther. They went through Europe and into Southwest Asia.
When the Viking age began, the expansion of Egyptian cat families exploded. It was likely due to the popularity of using ship cats to kill rats. "Rats on ships not only eat and spoil the food, they also destroy the ropes, so rats could be a disaster for sailors," says Geigl. "Cats prevent these types of disasters."