Cats and humans have coexisted in each other's lives for thousands of years, and although they were not always highly valued as they are now, they played an important role in many cultures. The cat is always mysterious and sometimes distrusted by various civilizations, but always proves its worth.
While it is widely believed that cats were first domesticated in Egypt 4,000 years ago, their history among humans dates back much earlier. Feral cats are now known to have lived in Mesopotamians over 100,000 years ago and were domesticated at the same time as dogs, sheep, and goats around 12,000 BC. Archaeological excavations over the past decade have provided evidence that the Near Eastern wildcat is a close relative of modern domestic cats, raised by Mesopotamian farmers, most likely to control pests, such as mice, which are fed food.
Author David Derbyshire cites a 2007 CE research project in which "the study used DNA samples from 979 wild and domestic cats to piece together the family tree of felines." They looked for markers in mitochondrial DNA — a type of genetic material passed from mother to kitten that could reveal when feral and domestic cat bloodlines are most closely related. The project, led by Dr. Andrew Kitchener, a zoologist at the National Museum of Scotland, wrote, "This suggests that the origin of the domestic cat is not ancient Egypt — which is the popular view — but Mesopotamia, and that it happened much earlier than thought." The last common ancestor of feral and domestic cats lived more than 100,000 years ago" (Derbyshire).
Dr. Kitchener's discovery builds on evidence provided by a cat skeleton found in 1983 in a tomb on the island of Cyprus dating back to 9,500 BC. This discovery by archaeologist Alain le Brun is important because there are no native cats in Cyprus and settlers are unlikely to bring wild cats to the island by boat. Cats of ancient Egypt
However, the connection of cats to ancient Egypt is understandable, as Egyptian culture is known for its love of cats. The export of cats from Egypt is so strictly prohibited that a government department has been set up to deal with the problem. Government agents are sent to other countries to find and return smuggled cats. It is clear that by 450 BC, in Egypt, the punishment for killing a cat was the death penalty (although this law is thought to have been observed much earlier). Often depicted as a cat or woman with a cat's head, the goddess Buster was one of the most popular deities in the Egyptian Pantheon. She is the guardian of the stove and family, the protector of female secrets, the guardian of demons and diseases, and the goddess of cats.
The center of her ceremony was the city of Bubastis ("House of Bastet"), where, according to Herodotus (484-425 BC), a huge temple complex was built in her honor in the center of the city. Herodotus also mentioned that the Egyptians cared so much about their cats that they put their safety above human life and property. When a house is on fire, Egyptians are more concerned with rescuing the cat than anything else, and they often run back to the burning building or form a circle around the flames to keep the cat at a safe distance.
When a cat died, Herodotus wrote: "All the inhabitants of the house shaved their eyebrows [as a sign of deep mourning]. The dead cat is taken to Bubastis, where it is embalmed and buried in sacred containers" (Nardo 117). When people's eyebrows grow back, the mourning period ends. Mummified cats have been found in Bubastis and elsewhere throughout Egypt, sometimes buried with or close to their owners, as evidenced by the identification of the seal on the mummy.
However, the best example of the Egyptians' love for cats comes from the Battle of Pelucim (525 BC), in which Cambyses II of Persia conquered Egypt by defeating the army of the Egyptian pharaoh Psametik III. Knowing the Egyptians' affection for cats, Cambyses had his men round up various animals, mainly cats, and drive them away before the invading forces reached the fortified city of Pelusium on the banks of the Nile.
Persian soldiers painted images of cats on their shields, and they probably also held cats in their arms as they marched behind an animal wall. The Egyptians, unwilling to defend themselves for fear of harming cats (with a possible death penalty if they killed a cat), were demoralized by the sight of the image of Bastet on the enemy's shield and surrendered the city, leaving Egypt in the hands of the Persians. The historian Polyanus (2nd century AD) writes that after the surrender, Cambyses triumphantly passed by, rode through the city, and threw cats contemptuously in the faces of the defeated Egyptians.
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