Modern DNA analysis challenges long-held beliefs about the timing and route of cat domestication. Scientists from University of Rome Tor Vergata and international collaborators compared ancient cat genomes from 70 specimens collected across Europe, North Africa, and Anatolia (spanning the 9th century BCE to the 19th century CE) with DNA from modern domestic cats and wildcats. 

 

Their results reveal that today’s domestic cats are more closely related to North African wildcats (Felis lybica) than to those from the Levant — undermining the prevailing theory that cats spread to Europe with Neolithic farmers about 6,000 years ago. 

 

Instead, actual domestic cats appear in European archaeological records only around 2,000 years ago, likely arriving during the Roman era — perhaps brought by traders and sailors as pest controllers aboard grain ships moving across the Mediterranean. 

 

Before then, the feline remains found in Europe and Anatolia seem to belong to native wildcats (Felis silvestris), not domesticated ones. Even feral cats on islands like Sardinia — once thought to be descendants of early European house cats — are genetically closer to North African wildcats. 

 

 

The new findings reshape how we view the cat-human relationship, prompting researchers to call for further ancient DNA studies — especially from Africa — to pinpoint where and when wildcats first began their journey toward domestication. 

 

 

 

 

Key Takeaways

 

DNA from ancient European and Mediterranean cats shows modern house cats derive from North African wildcats, not Levantine ones. 

 

Domestic cats likely reached Europe about 2,000 years ago, during the early Roman Empire — not during the Neolithic as previously believed. 

 

Before that arrival, cats in Europe were native wildcats, not the domesticated felines familiar today; even island populations thought to be feral descend from wild ancestors. 

 

Adapted From 

 

https://archaeology.org/news/2025/12/03/genetic-study-offers-new-thoughts-on-cat-domestication/

Do I have to stop with the pussy jokes?