The story of how house cats spread across Europe isn’t what many thought. For decades, archaeologists assumed early farmers brought cats from the Near East thousands of years ago. New genetic research, however, reveals a surprising truth: domestic cats arrived in Europe only around 2,000 years ago, largely thanks to the Roman military.
The Murky Origins of Feline Domestication
Cats have a less straightforward history with humans than dogs. While dogs were domesticated as early as 20,000 years ago, cats’ timeline is fuzzier. Evidence suggests the first interactions began in the Levant (modern-day Middle East) around 9,500 years ago, coinciding with the rise of agriculture. Farmers welcomed wildcats because they controlled rodents attracted to grain stores – a mutually beneficial arrangement that eventually led to domestication. Early cat remains from Cyprus date back to 7500 BCE, showing they were already integrated into daily life.
Egypt’s Feline Obsession
Ancient Egypt further cemented cats’ place in human culture around 3,500 years ago. Unlike earlier, less documented periods, Egyptian society adored cats, depicting them in art and burying them with reverence. Bastet, the feline goddess of protection and fertility, was a central figure in their religion.
The Genetic Puzzle
Previous research hinted at early migrations from Turkey and Egypt, but DNA analysis proved unreliable. Distinguishing domestic cat bones from wildcat remains was difficult, creating gaps in the historical record. However, a recent study published in Science analyzed the genomes of 70 ancient cats and 17 modern wildcats, spanning 11,000 years.
The Roman Connection
The findings were clear: modern cats didn’t reach Europe until roughly 2,000 years ago. This rules out Neolithic farmers as the primary carriers. Instead, the genetic evidence points to Roman soldiers as the key players in feline expansion. Like the farmers before them, soldiers used cats to control rodents, spreading them along military routes. By the 1st century CE, cats had even reached Roman Britain.
Wildcat Hybrids and Island Populations
The study also revealed that early European cats weren’t purely domesticated. They were often hybrids between domestic cats and European wildcats. Furthermore, Sardinian wildcats are genetically closer to North African wildcats than to domestic breeds, suggesting humans deliberately introduced wildcats to Mediterranean islands where they weren’t naturally found.
Project FELIX and Future Research
This research is part of Project FELIX, a larger EU-funded effort to analyze 800 ancient cat samples to understand the cat-human relationship better. Evolutionary biologist Jonathan Losos notes that “cats give up their secrets grudgingly,” highlighting the complexity of unraveling their history. More ancient DNA analysis is needed to fill in the remaining gaps.
In conclusion, the Roman military inadvertently played a major role in spreading domestic cats across Europe, overturning previous assumptions about their arrival. This discovery underscores how human activities, even war, can reshape the distribution of species over millennia.
