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Yes, there are cats accompanying humans in Cyprus early in the Holocene. Whether you regard them as domestic cats seem to be a matter of debate. Given that Cyprus has, and has had, no endemic felids, it is highly probably that the cats arrived there with people. That rules out vicarious transport on floating logs, or cats swimming the eastern Med. If cats travel with people, are they domestic cats? Not necessarily, as the archaeological record is awash with animals that have hitched a ride with people, uninvited. Rats are the obvious example. Unless, that is, rats were formerly regarded as handy snack food and deliberately moved around by early seafarers, but that's another debate. Then there is the matter of context. Davis found cats in Neolithic deposits on Cyprus, associated with human settlement, and the more recent and earlier finds are associated with human burials. On a social definition, those are 'domestic' cats. Whether they would have qualified as such under a taxonomic biology definition of 'domestic' is another matter. However, there is an issue of consistency. If a canid puppy in a Natufian grave is a dog, then surely a felid in a grave in Cyprus is a domestic cat?
 
That should spark some discussion?
 
Terry
 
 

***********************************
Prof Terry O'Connor
Department of Archaeology
University of York
Kings Manor
York YO1 7EP
 http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/arch/staff/OConnor.htm
Editor, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/5488

-----Original Message-----
From: Analysis of animal remains from archaeological sites [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Salima Ikram
Sent: 06 August 2008 18:36
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ZOOARCH] domestic cat in Britain

don't they first emerge in cyprus? earlier domes than in egypt. have something somewhere about it, but rather useless for the uk
salima

On 6 Aug 2008, at 19:36, Stephanie Vann wrote:

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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Salima Ikram
Professor of Egyptology
American University in Cairo