Paris, April 21, 2004
© P. Gérard
It is generally taken for granted that cat domestication began in
At the end of the 1980's, the discovery of the jawbone of a cat on the island of Cyprus, at Khirokitia, in sediment from the Neolithic Age dating from more than 6,000 years B.C., had already suggested that the domestication of this species could have begun earlier and elsewhere than in Egypt. The distance of the
Digs at the site of Shillourokambos, led by Jean Guilaine under the direction of the Department of Antiquities of
The complete body of the animal was buried in a small pit at about twenty centimeters from the human grave. The animal might have been killed for the occasion. The tomb, particularly rich in offerings in comparison to other graves known from this period in
Whatever the case may be, this grave certainly bears witness to relationships between humans and cats in the 8th millennium B.C., not restricted to the material benefit of humans but also involved in spiritual links.
This particularly spectacular discovery suggests that the cat was already on the way to being domesticated in the
Jean-Denis Vigne obtained the Silver Medal from the CNRS in 2002 for his overall body of research, including the domestication of different species in the
(1) CNRS-EHESS, Centre d'Anthropologie, Toulouse; Collège de France, Chair of the department: Civilisations de l'Europe au Néolithique et à l'Age de Bronze, Paris.
(2) CNRS-Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris.
Early taming of the cat in Cyprus, J.-D. Vigne, J. Guilaine, K. Debue, L. Haye & P. Gérard. Science, April 9, 2004.
Contact - Département Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société:
Tel: +33 (0)4 44 96 40 21
Press office contact:
Tel: +33 (0)1 44 96 49 88
Latest press releases