Ancient Egyptians typically get the credit for domesticating cats, not to mention giving them an exalted status that remains to this day. But French archaeologists excavating a large Neolithic village in Cyprus reported the discovery of an intact skeleton of a cat carefully buried beside the remains of a human, along with various tools and ceremonial objects. The find dates to about 9,500 years ago—5,000 years before the Egyptians began sculpting likenesses of the slinky creature they called miu.
Several clues point to what Jean-Denis Vigne, a member of the team, called “a strong association between two individuals, a human and a cat.” The two sets of remains were found less than 12 inches apart, positioned symmetrically with their heads facing west. They lay in the same sediment and in the same state of preservation, with no sign that the animal had been butchered. Subsequent examination showed that a small ...
