How cats migrated to Europe?
May 17, 2023
The five known varieties of wildcat (Near Eastern, Chinese, Central Asian, Southern African, and European) are quite identical and can interbreed. Analysts had a tough time pinpointing where in the world the domestication of cats first began. Some even think that it had taken place at multiple times and places.
Until recently, the thinking was that cats arrived in Europe only in Late Antiquity (approximately the 3rd to 7th century AD).
Nowadays, it has been determined that the Near Eastern wildcat (Felis silvestris lybica) is the common ancestor of all domesticated cats, and that they were first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent about 10 thousand years ago.
