The exact history of
human interaction with cats is still somewhat
vague. The earliest written records of attempts to
domesticate cats date back to ancient Egypt, circa
4000 BC, where cats were employed to keep mice and
rats away from grain stores. However, a gravesite
discovered in 1983 in Shillourokambos, Cyprus,
dating to 7500 BC, contains the skeletons of a
ceremonially buried human and a type of young cat.
Since cats are not native to Cyprus, this suggests
that cats were domesticated (or just tamed) at
least this early. The cat found in the Cyprus
grave was more similar to the ancestral wildcat
species than to modern housecats. [23][24].
Statues from Anatolia created around 6000 BC have
also been found depicting women playing with
domesticated cats, which implies that cats were
domesticated there around the same time period.
Ancient Egyptians regarded cats as embodiments of
the goddess Bast, also known as Bastet
(emphasizing the female -t suffix) or Thet. The
penalty for killing a cat was death, and when a
cat died it was sometimes mummified in the same
way as a human. Recently, deep scans of several
mummified felines indicated they had suffered
broken necks before mummification. It is unclear
why, but researchers theorize that some cats may
have been sacrificed to honor Bast. Recent
research indicates that cats were so popular in
tombs that sometimes other animals would be
wrapped up in the form of a mummified cat. |
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