http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3611453.stmThe discovery of a cat buried with what could be its owner in a Neolithic grave on Cyprus suggests domestication of cats had begun 9,500 years ago.
It was thought the Egyptians were first to domesticate cats, with the earliest evidence dating to 2,000-1,900 BC.
French researchers writing in Science magazine show that the process actually began much earlier than that.
They argue that the burial at Shillourokambos on Cyprus represents the first known taming of a cat by humans. The site was a large Neolithic, or late stone age, village inhabited from the 9th to the 8th millennia BC.This is cool because of just how early the date is. It suggests that almost from the moment humans started farming, cats were hanging around to catch the mice that were stealing the grain.
But what's particularly strange about it is that our domestic cats derive from the North African wildcat, and there was no farming in North Africa at this time. Agriculture began in what is now Kurdistan around 11,000 BC and spread from there in the 9000's to Palestine, Central Anatolia, and Cyprus. It didn't reach North Africa until perhaps 7000 BC.
So just when and how did North African cats make friends with the farmers of the Levant? And who brought them to Cyprus? I'd sure like to know.
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