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/ / special significance. If this is the case, the evidence that people kept cats

status symbols or pets, takes a major leap backward to 7500 BCE. The Cyprus cat is similar to the domestic cat’s ancestor, the African wildcat, Felis silvestris lybica (see  p. 9 and pp. 12–13). If it did belong to this species, it was not native to the island and  so must have been taken there. Archeologists have also recently disinterred the bones of small felines at  the site of a 5,000-year-old arable farming settlement in central China. Detailed analysis of the bones suggested that the  cats had preyed on grain-eating rodents,  so they clearly had some association with the human community, although whether  by chance or because they had been tamed  is impossible to establish.  Fascinating though they are, these newest finds are a long way from representing conclusive proof that the domestication  of the cat is an older story than originally believed. However, it is likely that the domestication of the cat progressed through a number of unsuccessful starts.
MOVING INDOORS Cats probably first put a paw into domestic life when humans made the switch from being hunter-gatherers to being farmers. Growing crops meant storing grain, and granaries attracted swarms of rodents 
ready to feast on this new bonanza of food. In turn, this provided an inexhaustible supply of easily caught prey for local populations of wildcats. The modern house cat has its origins in the very birthplace of agriculture, a swathe of richly productive farmlands known as the Fertile Crescent that extends from the Nile Valley up to the eastern Mediterranean  and then southward to the Persian Gulf  (see map, opposite). When, more than  2000 years BCE, the ancient Egyptians established the earliest-known organized agricultural societies along the banks of  the Nile, the African wildcats of the region were ready to fill a new niche.  Most of the cats that began to visit the Fertile Crescent farming communities would have been small spotted tabbies, very much like many of today’s household pets. Although initially these cats arrived
uninvited, eventually farmers began to realize the benefits of having on-site rodent control. The popular theory is that people actively encouraged cats to take up residence in their grain stores by tempting them with food scraps. From there, it is easy to imagine how the increasingly socialized cats would have moved into the house. Sheltered from the hazards of the wild, including larger predators, cats could now breed prolifically and their offspring had  a better chance of surviving to maturity. A litter of kittens born in a domestic environment, and most likely petted from  a very young age, could with little difficulty be absorbed into a family as pets. As Egyptian civilization rose, so did the status of Egyptian cats, whose eventual progression from household mouser to sacred icon is well recorded in paintings, statues, and mummified remains (see  pp. 24–25). However, until cats started  to spread out of the Fertile Crescent from about 500 BCE (see pp. 18–19), the concept  of the cat as a truly domesticated
Out of all the big cat species, only  the cheetah has proved possible to domesticate to any extent. Both the ancient Egyptians and the Assyrians kept tame cheetahs and used them for hunting, as centuries later did  the Mogul emperors in India. These beautiful animals can be remarkably tractable when habituated to people—the huntsmen of old trained them to accept a collar and leash, and to return to the huntsmen when the chase was over. However, even among those with the means to keep them, cheetahs never became widespread as pets. This is most probably because until recently people did not understand their breeding behavior well enough for them to reproduce successfully in captivity. Replacement animals were always sourced from the wild and therefore never developed the temperament of domestic pets that are born and raised by people over many generations.

special significance. If this is the case, the evidence that people kept cats


status symbols or pets, takes a major leap backward to 7500 BCE. The Cyprus cat is similar to the domestic cat’s ancestor, the African wildcat, Felis silvestris lybica (see  p. 9 and pp. 12–13). If it did belong to this species, it was not native to the island and  so must have been taken there. Archeologists have also recently disinterred the bones of small felines at  the site of a 5,000-year-old arable farming settlement in central China. Detailed analysis of the bones suggested that the  cats had preyed on grain-eating rodents,  so they clearly had some association with the human community, although whether  by chance or because they had been tamed  is impossible to establish.  Fascinating though they are, these newest finds are a long way from representing conclusive proof that the domestication  of the cat is an older story than originally believed. However, it is likely that the domestication of the cat progressed through a number of unsuccessful starts.
MOVING INDOORS Cats probably first put a paw into domestic life when humans made the switch from being hunter-gatherers to being farmers. Growing crops meant storing grain, and granaries attracted swarms of rodents 
ready to feast on this new bonanza of food. In turn, this provided an inexhaustible supply of easily caught prey for local populations of wildcats. The modern house cat has its origins in the very birthplace of agriculture, a swathe of richly productive farmlands known as the Fertile Crescent that extends from the Nile Valley up to the eastern Mediterranean  and then southward to the Persian Gulf  (see map, opposite). When, more than  2000 years BCE, the ancient Egyptians established the earliest-known organized agricultural societies along the banks of  the Nile, the African wildcats of the region were ready to fill a new niche.  Most of the cats that began to visit the Fertile Crescent farming communities would have been small spotted tabbies, very much like many of today’s household pets. Although initially these cats arrived
uninvited, eventually farmers began to realize the benefits of having on-site rodent control. The popular theory is that people actively encouraged cats to take up residence in their grain stores by tempting them with food scraps. From there, it is easy to imagine how the increasingly socialized cats would have moved into the house. Sheltered from the hazards of the wild, including larger predators, cats could now breed prolifically and their offspring had  a better chance of surviving to maturity. A litter of kittens born in a domestic environment, and most likely petted from  a very young age, could with little difficulty be absorbed into a family as pets. As Egyptian civilization rose, so did the status of Egyptian cats, whose eventual progression from household mouser to sacred icon is well recorded in paintings, statues, and mummified remains (see  pp. 24–25). However, until cats started  to spread out of the Fertile Crescent from about 500 BCE (see pp. 18–19), the concept  of the cat as a truly domesticated
Out of all the big cat species, only  the cheetah has proved possible to domesticate to any extent. Both the ancient Egyptians and the Assyrians kept tame cheetahs and used them for hunting, as centuries later did  the Mogul emperors in India. These beautiful animals can be remarkably tractable when habituated to people—the huntsmen of old trained them to accept a collar and leash, and to return to the huntsmen when the chase was over. However, even among those with the means to keep them, cheetahs never became widespread as pets. This is most probably because until recently people did not understand their breeding behavior well enough for them to reproduce successfully in captivity. Replacement animals were always sourced from the wild and therefore never developed the temperament of domestic pets that are born and raised by people over many generations.
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