According to Linseele et al (2007) there appear to be domestic cats by the Middle Kingdom (c. 2040 - 1782 BC) in Egypt, at the latest during the 12th dynasty (c. 1976 - 1793 BC) when the animal begins to appear frequently in Egyptian art. However, since as I understand it the cat's origins lie in the Middle East, an early date is perhaps not unsurprising.
One problem though with answering the 'when do domestic cats appear' question appears to be differentiating between wild and domestic animals. O'Connor (2007) discusses this with regard to biometric variation in what I found to be quite an interesting paper.
Linseele, V., Van Neer, W., and Hendrickx, S. 2007. Evidence for early cat taming in Egypt. Journal of Archaeological Science 34: 2081-2090
O’Connor, T. 2007. Wild or Domestic? Biometric Variation in the Cat Felis Silvestris Schreber. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 17: 581-595
Stephanie Vann, PhD
Archaeozoologist
Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 16:07:23 +0100
From:
[log in to unmask]Subject: [ZOOARCH] domestic cat in Britain
To:
[log in to unmask]Dear All
I can find plenty of Iron Age references to the presence of domestic cats, but none for the Bronze Age. What is the current thinking on the arrival of domestic cats in Britain?
Thanks
Sylvia
Sylvia Warman
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