Dark beginnings of taming cats. Archaeologists presented a new hypothesis
Until now, it was believed that cats were tamed mainly because of the benefits that the first farmers achieved thanks to them. However, archaeologists note that macabre customs related to the Egyptian deity could also include.
It is difficult to indicate the exact circumstances in which cats became companions for people. In 2001, scientists talked about the breakthrough related to the discovery of a 9.5 thousand-year-old tomb in Cyprus. It contained the remains of both man and cat. It was then thought that this Mediterranean island was the cradle of domesticating these pets.
Home cats, however, do not come from Cyprus?
Scientists in their theories assumed that cats in Cyprus and around the island followed farmers and gradually got used to living with people over thousands of years. Predators hunting on rodents were to be appreciated for protecting the harvest.
However, the latest research, which is still awaiting the final confirmation, suggests something else. They notice that a wild species of European cats has been found in Cyprus, not its domesticated version. In this case, researchers again direct their eyes to Egypt, where people with cats have lived in harmony for at least 3,000 years.
“We showed that domesticated cats did not spread around Europe together with neolithic farmers, as initially thought,” explained scientists. Instead, researchers suspect that tame species of wild cats were dedicated during religious rites in honor of the goddess Bastet, and only later they were tamed with domestic animals.
The cats were initially offered the goddess. Then they became friends
Archaeologists emphasize that the goddess of protection, pleasure and good health was originally depicted with the head of the lion. About the first millennium before our era, however, they began to carve and draw her with the head of the cat.
“This transformation harmonized with the increase in cat victims, where millions of wandering cats were mummified in the sacrifice for the goddess,” it was emphasized in the latest study. The excavations also showed that the temples and sanctuaries dedicated to Bastet were located around agricultural areas.
“This would create an opportunity for a closer relationship between people and cats, leading to domestication of wild cats, motivated by their newly acquired divine status,” reads. It was only with time that some of the ancient Egyptians were to take cats in their homes as delightful companions of life. Previously, they were rather prepared to sacrifice.
“The results of our research give a new interpretative framework for the geographical origin of cats. They suggest a wider and more complex domestication process that could include several regions and cultures in North Africa,” we read.
