The History Of The Cat

   There is some confusion about the origins of cats, with researchers arguing about when and where cats were domesticated. A group of scientists even argue that cats domesticated themselves.

For a long time, it was believed that the Pharaohs (old Egyptians ) domesticated cats around 4000 years ago. Geographically this makes sense because DNA evidence shows that modern-day domestic cats share a common ancestor with "the African wildcat". However, about 14 years ago a nine and a half thousand-year-old Neolithic grave in Cyprus was excavated and revealed the remains of a cat buried with a man. This new scientific discovery suggests that humans kept cats long before the 4000-year mark.

 Some other studies suggested that domestication of cats could have started as much as 12,000 years ago when agriculture flourished in the Middle East’s Fertile Crescent (an area of fertile land around Egypt and Syria). The theory says that the increased agriculture brought in more vermin and the cats followed. That makes sense because even today feral cats will definitely flock to and thrive in areas with plenty of food.

It is thought that domestic cats were brought to Europe around 3000 years ago by Phoenician and Greek traders. Romans have valued cats highly for pest control and the Roman Legions would have taken cats with them as they moved through Gaul and eventually Britain.

  About 1600 years ago the Romans left Britain but they were left behind many of the cats they owned. When the Vikings invaded Britain around 1000 years ago it is thought that they took some of the domesticated cats (that the Romans left behind) and they back to Norway with them.

Witchcraft

Around 700 years ago all things have taken an unfortunate turn for cats in Britain. And all of a sudden a suspicion of cats being involved in witchcraft was rife. Then the Europeans decided to kill all the cats in Europe. There was a huge massacre of cats in Europe with hundreds of thousands being slaughtered.  Many people assumed that this slaughter of cats allowed the rat population in Europe to multiply to huge incredible amounts, and so played a great part in increasing the spread of the Bubonic plague from 1346 - 1353.