1.Listen to part of a lecture in an archaeology class.
2.In our last class we began talking about animal domestication.
3.And we said it's the process whereby a population of animals is bred in captivity and becomes accustomed to being provided for and controlled by humans.
5.Yeah. I was thinking...you said domesticated animals usually served some kind of purpose for humans, like horses could...uh...pull heavy loads,
6.and dogs could hunt or herd sheep, but cats, why were they ever domesticated?
7.I mean, mine can't do much of anything.
8.Interesting question. Cats don't seem likely candidates for domestication, do they?
9.They actually lack an important characteristic that most animals that can be domesticated have.
10.Domesticable animals tend to live in herds or packs, with clear dominance hierarchies.
11.Humans could easily take advantage of this hierarchical structure.
12.By supplanting the alpha individual, they could gain control of the whole group or of individuals as in the case of dogs.
13.Cats in the wild, though, rarely have this structure. For the most part, they are solitary hunters.
14.But as for their utility to humans, well, it's helpful to think about when and where cat domestication might have begun.
16.Well, I guess ancient Egypt.
17.I’m thinking of all those ancient Egyptian paintings of cats.
19.Those paintings you mentioned do provide the oldest known depictions of full cat domestication, where cats are, without question, household companions.
20.The paintings from about 3,600 years ago typically show cats in Egyptian homes poised under chairs, sometimes wearing collars, eating scraps of food out of bowls.
21.But the Egyptians don't get credited for the early stages of cat domestication where cats are just beginning to interact with humans.
22.There are signs of early domestication as far back as 9,500 years ago!
23.Recently, two graves were discovered on the Island of Cyprus.
24.One was the grave of a human, buried with some tools, sea shells and other items, and nearby, a cat was buried in its own grave.
25.Interestingly, the cat's body was oriented in the same westward direction as the human's body.
26.Another notable thing about the two bodies was that they were in an identical state of preservation, suggesting they had been buried at the same time.
27.So we can assume that humans had at least some kind of relationship with cats as early as 9,500 years ago!
28.So cat domestication began in Cyprus?
29.Well, except cats weren't native to Cyprus.
30.They were undoubtedly brought over to the island by boat probably from the nearby coast of the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East.
31.In fact, extensive DNA analysis has now confirmed what archaeologists have believed for quite some time.