The Surprising New Timeline of Cat Domestication
The history of cat domestication has long been a puzzle with shifting pieces. Recent research published in Science on November 27 has fundamentally rewritten this timeline, suggesting that domesticated cats left Africa and entered Europe much later than previously thought—only about 2,000 years ago. This breakthrough challenges long-held assumptions about when our feline companions first curled up on human laps.
Researchers led by Claudio Ottoni, a paleogeneticist at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, analyzed the complete genetic material from 87 ancient cats that lived throughout Europe and Turkey from the 9th millennium B.C. through the 1800s. Their striking discovery: cat remains in Europe dating from before 200 B.C. were actually European wildcats (Felis silvestris), not domesticated cats (Felis catus). “This fundamentally reshapes our understanding of the species’ history,” notes Allowen Evin, a bioarchaeologist at the University of Montpellier who wasn’t involved in the research. “It reveals an entirely new narrative.”
Prior to this study, the prevailing theory suggested domesticated cats originated from African wildcats (Felis lybica lybica) several thousand years ago, with two leading hypotheses for their origin point. One centered on ancient Egypt approximately 4,000-5,000 years ago, where cats were highly revered. The alternative theory gained traction in 2004 when archaeologists discovered a 9,500-year-old cat buried alongside a human in Cyprus, suggesting an even earlier domestication in the Levant region. This hypothesis seemed further supported by a 2017 study led by Ottoni himself, which analyzed mitochondrial DNA from ancient cats and suggested that cats related to domesticated ones had moved into southeastern Europe from Turkey with early farmers around 6,000 years ago.
The latest research, however, provides a much more comprehensive picture. The previous mitochondrial DNA study only revealed maternal lineage, offering an incomplete view. The new whole-genome analysis shows that while some ancient European cats did carry mitochondrial genes from African wildcats, their nuclear DNA mostly resembled that of European wildcats. This suggests that European and African wildcats had interbred naturally long before domestication, rather than representing evidence of tamed African cats being brought to Europe by humans. As Ottoni explains, the early association between cats and human settlements likely began when “humans were stocking grains in their settlements and these attracted rodents and other pests and these, in turn, attracted cats.”
The research points to the Mediterranean island of Sardinia as a potential stepping stone in the spread of domesticated cats to Europe. Both African wildcats and domesticated cats appeared there approximately 2,000 years ago. Given this timeline, Ottoni suspects the Romans may have been responsible for sailing these cats across the Mediterranean, though other civilizations such as the Phoenicians and Punic peoples could have also played significant roles. Interestingly, the African wildcats found on Sardinia can be traced to populations from northwestern Africa, far from the traditional suspected origins in the Levant and Egypt, adding another layer to this complex story.
This revised timeline aligns with another recent study examining when house cats first arrived in China. Despite their later introduction to Europe, domestic cats have had plenty of time to achieve their current status as one of the world’s most popular pets, with hundreds of millions now kept in homes worldwide. As Evin notes, “Cats have been studied far less intensively than dogs, but they have much to teach us about how human societies have shaped and modified species to meet our needs over millennia.” This new understanding of cat domestication provides not only insight into our feline companions but also illuminates the complex relationship between humans and the animals we choose to bring into our lives.
