House cats are among the most popular pets in the world, and there are a lot of ‘wild’ (or stray) house cats out there as well. These cute felines have made their way into the hearts of humans, and now many see them as an important member of the family.

Historically, cats and humans have gotten along quite well for a very long time. In fact, there have been the remains of cats found with humans dating back to the Neolithic period.

That is why, when researchers began looking at the remains of ancient cats for a study that they published in the journal Science, they were shocked at what they found.

Those were not house cats.

Further research found that the cats that we all know and love today actually only evolved about 2000 years ago. When talking about his expectations for the study, author Marco de Martino said:

“I was sure that I was going to analyze the earliest domestic genomes, but I was totally wrong. Actually, when we look at these genomes, they are not domestic cats – they are European wildcats, which is totally a different species.”

The remains of all the cats he studied that were more than 2000 years old ended up being European wildcats, not the domesticated cats we have today.

Of course, this is not to say that our ancient ancestors didn’t have any relationship with their cats, they most certainly did. It is just that the cats they had around were an entirely different species from what we are familiar with today.

Another author of the study, Claudio Ottoni, commented on their findings:

“Archeological evidence suggests that the first encounter between cats and humans was in the Levant, and we are not rejecting the relationship that happened in the Neolithic. There was definitely a commensal relationship, but that did not ultimately lead to the domestication and dispersal of cats.”

It turns out that modern house cats came from North African wildcats, with our modern species of pets only emerging around 2200 years ago.

Once they evolved, however, they spread quickly across the Roman Empire and even as far as the British Isles within a relatively short period of time. de Martino says:

“They spread very quickly, and in a few decades they were found everywhere within the Roman Empire boundaries.”

Is it any surprise that the ancient Romans loved cats just as much as we do?

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