Did you know that cats were not always domesticated? Cats played a very important role in the society of many different cultures.

1. The Role
Cats
Played in
History

2. The first evidence of early cats came from the
island of Cyprus in 1983 when archeologists found
a cat's jawbone dating back 8,000 years ago.
In 2004, it was discovered that a cat was
deliberately buried with a human in Cyprus, dating
domestication back 1,500 years further.
A new study in the journal Science says that cats
were first domesticated in the Near East 12,000
years ago from the wildcat felix sylvestris which
means "cat out of the woods."
Cat buried next
to human
Felix
Sylvestris

3. Cats started to become popular when people
started to settle down and grain stores started to
open.
With grain stores mean mice which means cats
providing perfect pest control.
Cats invited themselves in and people favored cats
with these docile traits
After adapting to this new environment, house
cats produced dozens of breeds today.

4. In Ancient Egypt, there was a cat cemetery in Beni-
Hassan with 300,000 cat mummies.
After Baset, the Egyptian goddess of love, was
found with a cat's head, she was sentenced to
death as it was considered illegal.
Ancient Romans saw cats as a symbol of liberty
In the Far East, cats were valued for protecting
treasured manuscripts from rodents.
During the Middle Ages, cats were linked with
witches and the devil with many killed to ward off
evil.
Cats were more accepted starting from the 1600s
in the West.

5. We now see cats as the protagonists of
shows and comic strips like Garfield or
Tom and Jerry
By the mid-90s, cat services and products
became a billion-dollar industry.