The timing and evidence of domestication of the modern day cat is a tricky thing to pin down.
The reasons for the confusion are partly to do with the genetics of cats (wild cats continue to breed with domestic cats all over the world), and partly to do with the nature of cats, as social behaviors and animal size are the two main keys to identifying domestication.
Although evidence for cats hanging around people has been found as long ago as 7200 BC (when cats were imported with a lot of other animals to the Greek island of Cyprus), most scholars pick the Egyptian civilization of about 4,000 years ago as the period of the permanent domestication of the wily feline critter some of us are so fond of.
Want to learn more? Here is some of the latest information on the evidence and theories of the domesticated cat.
Although evidence for cats hanging around people has been found as long ago as 7200 BC (when cats were imported with a lot of other animals to the Greek island of Cyprus), most scholars pick the Egyptian civilization of about 4,000 years ago as the period of the permanent domestication of the wily feline critter some of us are so fond of.
Want to learn more? Here is some of the latest information on the evidence and theories of the domesticated cat.
- Domestication of the Cat
- Animal Domestication
- LolCats, Mike Durrett at About Humor explains why the cat can't spell
- Cat Breeds, Franny Syufy at About Cats
Comments
Nice cat macro!
Moby dashed outside this morning; Steve came home to find that she was inside the house. She evidently bashed in one of our front screens to get to that all-important kibble. Domesticated my rosy pink toes.