Pushing Back the Clock

Posted on April 12, 2004 in Cats

According to archaeologists, cats moved in on us some seven thousand years earlier than we’d previously thought. Excavators discovered a small feline skeleton accompanying that of its “owner” in the cemetery of the Neolithic site at Shillourokambos, Cyprus:

The complete cat skeleton was found about 40 cm from a human burial. The similar states of preservation and positions of the burials in the ground suggest the person and the cat were buried together.

The person, who is about 30 years of age, but of unknown sex, was buried with offerings such as polished stone, axes, flint tools and ochre pigment.

Based on this the researchers argue that the person was of high status and may have had a special relationship with cats.

Because of this discovery, scientists now date the domestication of human beings to 9500 BC.