14 DAY TRIAL // Investigators with the Washington University in St. Louis (WUSL) argue in a new study that cats were first domesticated around 5,300 years ago, most likely by Chinese farmers. The conclusion is based on analysis of fossils discovered in the ruins of the ancient Chinese village of Quanhucun.
Details of the study will appear in an upcoming issue of the esteemed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). One possible reason the researchers advance for why cat domestication occurred here is that the felines were drawn to pests that lived in agricultural areas.
In other words, farming villages may have provided cats with ample food supplies, similar to how excess meat gathered by ancient hunting parties allowed humans to domesticate dogs so long ago.
The PNAS study is the first ever to provide actual evidences to support a theory of domestication. Researchers with the team says that the relationships developing between humans and cats at that time were largely beneficial to cats, while humans received only passive advantages.
“At least three different lines of scientific inquiry allow us to tell a story about cat domestication that is reminiscent of the old ‘house that Jack built’ nursery rhyme. “Our data suggest that cats were attracted to ancient farming villages by small animals, such as rodents that were living on the grain that the farmers grew, ate and stored,” says Fiona Marshall, Ph.
The expert, a coauthor on the new paper, holds an appointment as a professor of archeology at the WUSL Department of Arts & Sciences. She says that the cats which lived in China 5,300 years ago were not domesticated, but rather in the process of getting accustomed to human presence.
“Even if these cats were not yet domesticated, our evidence confirms that they lived in close proximity to farmers, and that the relationship had mutual benefits,” Marshall goes on to say. Previously, studies suggested that cats were first domesticated in Egypt around 4,000 years ago.
Recently, investigators conducting excavations in Cyprus discovered the tomb of a human who had been buried alongside a wild cat, more than 10,000 years ago. This suggests that the history our species shares with cats is longer and much more complex than originally believed.
“We do not yet know whether these cats came to China from the Near East, whether they interbred with Chinese wild-cat species, or even whether cats from China played a previously unsuspected role in domestication,” Marshall concludes.