ANCIENT CATS

SCHOLARS THOUGHT CATS BELONGED TO...

• Egyptians
• The Chinese
• And the Arbiac People
• But actually...

...none of those. The first people that "owned" cats were people that lived in the Near East, about 12,000 years ago!

WHAT DID THE CATS DO?

• We hunted, taming dogs first.
• Then started to settle down, farming.
• Mice started coming to eat the harvested grains.
• Wild cats came to eat the mice.
• Humans and cats were both happy!

"On 1983 on the Island of Cyprus, archeologists found a cat's jawbone, dating back more than 8000 years ago."

They thought that the people coming by boat to the island would not bring cats along. So domestication began more than 8000 years ago.

Then found a cat buried purposefully with a human (probably it's owner). Now, the taming of cats got pushed back another 1500 years.

EVENTUALLY WE GOT TO THE CONCLUSION...

• Cats invited themselves in.
• Humans enjoyed their company (overtime)
• Docile types of cats bred
• That is how there are so many breeds of housecats.
• (And different types of cats overall)

HAVING THAT SAID...

• ALL cats come from one cat:
• Middle Eastern Wildcat, Felis Sylvestris.
• It means "Cat of the Woods"

WHY CATS?

• Cats are my favorite animal.
• I wondered where and when they got tamed.
• I also wondered where they came from
• And if they changed overtime like we did.

SOURCES

• scientificamerican.com
• smithsonianmag.com
• "A Brief History of Cats" by David Zax
• Pictures from Haiku Deck search engine