London, December 01, 2025
New genetic research reveals that cat domestication occurred much later than previously thought, identifying North African wildcats as the ancestors of modern domestic cats and dating their arrival in Southwest Asia and Europe to approximately 2,000 years ago, overturning earlier timelines that placed domestication over 10,000 years ago.
Revising the Timeline of Cat Domestication
Recent genetic analyses published in a leading scientific journal challenge the widely accepted belief that cats were domesticated 10,000 to 12,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent. The new evidence indicates that authentic domestication happened only around 2,000 years ago, with domestic cats descending from North African wildcats rather than Middle Eastern populations.
Cats found in Europe before this period were genetically European wildcats or hybrids and do not represent an early stage of domestication. Researchers emphasize that this finding significantly alters the traditional narrative and suggests a more recent introduction of truly domesticated cats into human settlements in Europe and Southwest Asia.
Earlier Assumptions and Archaeological Context
For decades, the prevailing theory was that cats became domesticated as agricultural societies developed in the Fertile Crescent. It was posited that the abundance of rodents attracted wild cats to grain stores, where humans gradually domesticated the animals for pest control. Archaeological findings, such as cat burials in Cyprus roughly 9,000 years ago and reverence for cats in ancient Egypt about 3,500 years ago, were interpreted as evidence of early domestication attempts.
However, the new genetic data suggest these relationships did not necessarily involve formal domestication. Rather, cats likely existed in a semi-domesticated state, coexisting with humans without selective breeding or confinement. This passive association allowed cats to adapt independently to human environments over millennia.
Understanding Self-Domestication and Its Implications
The findings imply that cat domestication was predominantly a self-directed process, where wildcats adjusted to living alongside humans rather than being actively domesticated by them. This sets cats apart from other domesticated animals, whose domestication generally involved direct human intervention and selective breeding from earlier stages.
This revised timeline reshapes our understanding of human-animal relationships and raises questions about the nature and pace of domestication. It also highlights the importance of genetics alongside archaeological evidence in reconstructing historical narratives.
The discovery invites further interdisciplinary research to explore the complex interactions between humans and cats through history and to refine the timeline of domestication processes in other species. Understanding this dynamic sheds light on how animals adapt to anthropogenic environments and the evolving bonds that define domestication.