Genetic Studies Reveal Late Arrival of Domestic Cats in Europe and Asia

New genetic studies have upended long-held assumptions about the domestication of cats, revealing that the animals familiar as household companions arrived in Europe and East Asia far later than previously believed, around 2,000 years ago and 1,400 years ago, respectively.

Researchers analyzing ancient feline remains across Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and China found that domestic cats, descended from the African wildcat, spread through trade networks rather than early agricultural migrations. The findings, published Thursday in the journals Science and Cell Genomics, draw from genomes extracted from more than 200 ancient cat bones spanning over 10,000 years, as well as modern specimens. These data show no evidence of domestic cats in Europe before the Roman imperial period, starting in the first century A.D., contradicting earlier theories that placed their introduction there around 6,000 to 7,000 years ago alongside Neolithic farmers from the Near East.

In Europe, the Science study, led by paleogeneticist Claudio Ottoni of the University of Rome Tor Vergata, examined 225 cat remains from 97 archaeological sites. The earliest domestic cat identified was from a Roman...