Scientists Find Oldest Domesticated Cat

April 9, 2004 -- Dogs may be man's best friend, but a discovery on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus proves that cats and people go way back — thousands of years earlier than previously thought.

Anthropologists have unearthed two 9,500-year-old graves — one a human of unknown sex and age and, just 15 inches away, the neatly laid bones of the human's likely companion — a cat.

The intactness of the cat skeleton suggested that someone had dug a small grave for the animal. The human and cat skeletons were positioned symmetrically, with their heads pointing west. Nearby, scientists found a collection of polished stones, tools, jewelry and 24 complete sea shells.

"The association of this burial with both the sea shells and the cat grave strengthens the idea of a special burial indicating a strong relationship between cats and human beings," said J.D. Vigne of the Museum of Natural History in Paris, France, and lead author of the study about the find in the journal Science. "Possibly, tamed cats were devoted to special activities or special human individuals in the village."

Wild Cats to House Cats

Records from Egypt have suggested that bonds between cats and people date as far back as 4,000 to 5,500 years ago. But this discovery, at the site of a Neolithic village that was inhabited from the end of the 9th to the end of the 8th millennia B.C., pushes back that relationship by at least 4,000 years.

People in this village lived in mud huts and raised pigs, goats and sheep and stored grain to feed their livestock. Vigne says their ancestors may have begun introducing wild cats into their villages about 10,000 to 11,000 years ago, to help chase away mice from their grain. Recovered stones engraved with images of wild cats suggest the animals had become part of humans' lives by this time.

Then, apparently, a bond was formed between the mouse-chasers and the farmers.

Alan Beck, director of the Center for Applied Ethology and Human-Animal Interaction at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., argues the attraction between humans and cats is natural.

"Cats tap into our nurturing side," Beck said. "They have the face of an infant and this infant-like meowing. We like caring for them — it seems to be just part of our nature."

In fact, studies with cats — and dogs — show that both animals appear to have evolved in a way that have made them good companions for humans.

Brian Hare, an anthropology fellow at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, conducted studies last year that showed dogs have an inherent talent for reading human cues. When a researcher stood near two containers, one of which had food inside, and offered a visible cue about which one held food, dogs — even puppies — picked the correct container far more often than either chimps or wolves.

Cats, too, appear to have evolved in a way to connect with people. Nicholas Nicastro measured people's responses to various recorded "meows" while at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., and found that the most pleasant-sounding calls were also the least urgent. When cats need attention, their calls become unpleasant.

"I think cats have evolved to become better at managing and manipulating people," he concluded.

Pet Crazy Nation

A long history alongside humans, undoubtedly led to these unique bonds. While this study shows cats and humans may have been companions for over 9,000 years, a recent genetic analysis of dogs suggests man's best friend has been domesticated for as long as 135,000 years.

Today about 73 million cats are kept as pets in the United States while about 68 million dogs live as pets in the country, according to the Humane Society of the United States. Many people consider their cats and dogs as part of the family, spending more than $100 each year on vet expenses and carrying photos of the animals in their wallets.

"Having an animal buried with you is maybe these people's version of contemporary people opening dog boutiques and vast aisle space in our grocery stores for cat and dog food," Beck said about the newly found burial. "It's a variation of the same theme because it's part of our nature."

Incidentally, 9,500 years ago, it appears the ancient people on Cyprus enjoyed the company of cats, but regarded dogs in a very different way.

Vigne said his team discovered the bodies of 10 dogs at the site, but they were hardly laid down in graves.

"There were clear cut marks on the bone and burn marks of cooking," he said. "The dogs were most likely killed and eaten."