Modern
domestic cats are the result of a journey of many thousands of years of domestication and cultural exchange. Their history dates back some 10,000 years ago in what is now Turkey, where the Anatolians domesticated Middle Eastern wild cats and adopted them as faithful companions.
After 7,000 years, thanks to trade routes, these graceful creatures moved beyond their homeland and conquered Europe. However, it remained a mystery to scientists how and in what epochs cats penetrated into China, a country where today they have become an integral part of urban life.
So far, using genetic analysis, researchers have been able to determine that domestic cats likely appeared in China around 600 B.C. - more than 1,500 years after their appearance in Europe.
According to a recent study published on the bioRxiv preprint server, cats were one of many commodities that traveled east along with silk, spices and precious metals
on the famous Silk Road, the long trade network that connected Asia to Europe from the 2nd century BCE to the 15th century CE.
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The research also revealed that the oldest known domestic cat lived in the central Chinese province of Shaanxi between 706 and 883, during the height of the
Tang dynasty. This animal was characterized by a short coat of white or partially white coloration, reminiscent of modern Chinese cats, and a long tail. In all likelihood, its ancestors came from the distant steppes of
Kazakhstan, traveling thousands of kilometers to become part of life in China at that time.
After domestic cats arrived in China - presumably as gifts to Chinese nobility from Western traders - they quickly gained popularity, becoming a symbol of prestige and exoticism. Over time, they became an integral part of Chinese folk religion.
"In ancient China, cats were considered valuable and exotic pets," explains study co-author Shu-Jin Luo, a leading expert at the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity and Evolution at Peking University. According to him, the Chinese treated these animals with special reverence, holding special religious rituals when taking them into the house.
"Cats were not just viewed as possessions - they were welcomed as honored guests," Luo notes. The mysterious behavior of these creatures, balancing between independence and affection, only served to reinforce their mystical aura, making them an object of respect and even admiration.
As part of the study, scientists were able to analyze the remains of 22 cats found at 14 archaeological sites in China with an age of about 5 thousand years. Radiocarbon analysis made it possible to determine the exact age of some finds, after which experts classified them by species.
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Among the bones studied there were representatives of Felis catus - modern domestic cats descended from Middle Eastern wild cats, as well as Prionailurus bengalensis - Bengal cats (Far Eastern cats), which were not domesticated, but existed side by side with humans. Fourteen of the skeletons examined belonged to domestic cats.
In the final part of the work, the researchers compared the DNA of the found specimens with global genetic databases to trace the cats' paths of distribution and relatedness.
"This is by far the largest and most comprehensive study of small felines that lived in close contact with humans in China," Luo said. "Collecting archaeological samples of feline remains from China during this time period has been a very challenging task."
Previously, researchers have hypothesized that Bengal cats may have been domesticated in China, as in the ancient village of Quanhukun, which is more than 5,000 years old, archaeologists found the remains of small felines that lived near humans. According to a 2013 study, one of these cats lived to a ripe old age, its teeth erased and dulled, which may indicate grain feeding and possible human care.
It is assumed that Chinese farmers valued Bengal cats for their ability to hunt rats and fed them, although these animals likely never crossed the threshold of full domestication.
Archaeozoologist Melinda Zeder notes that they may have been in the "pre-domestication" stage, when wild animals begin to coexist closely with humans.
As for fully domesticated cats in China, all samples from the new study contain the unique clade IV-B genetic signature. This genetic marker is rarely found in the Middle East, but it was previously found in the remains of a cat that lived in medieval Kazakhstan between 775 and 940 AD.
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This is the oldest known representative of Felis catus found on the Silk Road. This fact has led scientists to believe that Chinese domestic cats originated in the Middle East and could have entered the Celestial Empire along ancient trade routes.
"Before now, we only had speculation," notes researcher Luo. - "Now we have the first scientific confirmation of this hypothesis."