The domestic cat arrived in Europe Only about 2000 years ago Coming from North African populations, a new study reveals, which It casts doubt on the belief that the birthplace of this feline is located in the Middle East It has accompanied European humans since the Neolithic period.
A study with Spanish participation and published by Science magazine He resorts to nuclear DNA analysis From the genomes of 70 cats from sites in Europe and Anatolia, and another 17 from modern wild cats from Europe and North Africa, representing aA more complete genetic reconstruction And about its origin and spread.
Domesticating a cat is a “very complex process.” It may have included multiple regions and cultures in North AfricaZooarchaeologist Marta Moreno, a researcher at the Institute of History of the Supreme Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) and one of the signatories of the article, told EFE.
It is possible that there were several centers of domestication, “but of course North Africa played a fundamental role in their arrival in Europe.” As for the moment, It would be the first century BC “In practice, the expansion of domestic cats occurred throughout Europe with the Romans,” he says.
The research was led by the University of Rome Tor Vergata, It identifies two main waves From the arrival of the African wild cat to Europe.
The first, in the first millennium BC, It has been documented in SardiniaA lineage from northwest Africa gave rise to a population of wild cats that are still preserved on the island, CSIC notes.
The second, crucial to the history of modern domestic cats, It was produced in Roman timesSince the first century BC, they spread domestic cats along their trade, military, and maritime routes, spreading them throughout the Mediterranean, Central Europe, and Britain.
Work too Examines how domestic and wild lineages interact After submitting it. Genetic hybridization was limited in Roman times, intensified during the Middle Ages and continues today in some areas, with relevant implications for the conservation of European wildcats.
These results, based on genetic studies, Questioning the belief that Neolithic farmers in the Near East They introduced domestic cats to Europe to protect their crops.
Cattle herds come to Europe from the Near East, where the domestication process takes place The cat was included in that groupIt’s an idea contributed by the discovery of a shared human-cat burial around 7500 BC in Cyprus, suggesting early domestication, Moreno points out.
On the other hand, Egyptian art and animal burial appeared later They point to the second focus of domestication in Egypt That will be later.
The new study contradicts both of these views, and genomic analyzes suggest that cats were found in Neolithic and Chalcolithic sites (7th to 3rd millennium BC) in southeastern Europe and Anatolia. They were actually wild cats. whose ancestors were crossbred with undomesticated African cats long before.
Researchers suggest a Paradigm shift On the arrival and development of the domestic cat, by showing that its domestication was not a unique or local process.
On the contrary, it was “a complex and perhaps polycentric phenomenon within North Africa, and its arrival in Europe was late, linked to Mediterranean networks promoted by the Phoenicians, Punics and Romans, who played a more important role in its expansion than the Neolithic societies of the Near East,” CSIC explains.
Moreno adds that this study Highlights the importance of recovering animal remains in archaeological excavationsBecause they constitute a heritage from which knowledge can be generated, not only about the distribution and dispersal of animal species, but also about the multiple relationships that human societies have had with them.