Scientists have debated how domestic cats reached East Asia for a long time. While it is well known that cats were first domesticated from wild species in the Middle East thousands of years ago, the timeline and path of their spread to China remained unclear.
Now, new research provides answers. A study of ancient cat bones found in China suggests house cats arrived around 600 C.E., centuries after they appeared in Europe. The findings indicate that traders from the West likely brought cats to China along the Silk Road.
“It’s a knockout study,” said Melinda Zeder, an archaeozoologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, who was not involved in the research. She noted that cats have recently become the most popular pet in urban China. “Tying them to the Silk Road is really boffo.”
Tracing Ancient Cats in China
The question of whether China domesticated its cats was previously debated. Researchers found cat bones in Quanhucun, a 5,000-year-old farming village in central China in 2013.
One of the cats had worn-down teeth and lived to an old age, suggesting humans cared for it. However, these cats were not related to modern house cats. Instead, they belonged to the leopard cat species (Prionailurus bengalensis), which has sandy fur and black spots.
To track how domestic cats arrived in China, Yu Han, a zooarchaeologist at Peking University, analyzed 22 cat bones from different regions, including Quanhucun. These remains, dating from 3500 B.C.E. to a few hundred years ago, constitute most of the ancient feline fossils found in China.
DNA analysis revealed that 14 of these bones belonged to domestic cats. All shared a genetic marker, clade IV-B, which is rare in Western Eurasia but matches an ancient domestic cat found in Dzhankent, a city in Kazakhstan.
This cat, which lived between 775 and 940 C.E., is the oldest known house cat along the Silk Road, a trade route connecting Europe and China.
The Silk Road’s role in the spread of cats
One of the study’s most significant discoveries was the oldest known domestic cat found in China. Unearthed in Tongwancheng, a key Silk Road city in northwestern China, this cat lived around the same time as the Dzhankent cat and had the most similar genetic profile.
This, combined with evidence of increased trade during the era, strongly suggests that house cats reached China through the Silk Road.
“Before now, there was just speculation,” said Shu-Jin Luo, a geneticist at Peking University who oversaw the research. “This is the first scientific evidence.”
Katherine Brunson, a zooarchaeologist at Wesleyan University who was not involved in the study, said future discoveries might refine the timeline.
“But based on what we do know, this route makes the most sense,” she said. As for how the cats traveled, Brunson believes they were likely transported in cages or containers. “You certainly can’t herd them,” she joked.
Why merchants traveled with cats
Given that merchants focused on valuable goods like silk and spices, why would they bring cats on their long, dangerous journeys? Genetics may explain.
DNA from the oldest house cat bones in China shows the animal was a male with short hair and a long tail. It was either pure white or a tabby with white patches.
“That would have made it a fancy, exotic pet,” said Luo. Records show that such cats were admired in royal courts. Princess Qionghua, who lived in the early 10th century, kept two white-marked cats named Xianchan Nu and Kunlun Daji—names Luo called “exceptionally striking and extravagant names.”
Even today, cats in China have more white fur than those elsewhere, which Luo suggests could be tied to the special meaning of white in Chinese culture.
Trade along the Silk Road peaked around 600 C.E., and Luo doubts house cats arrived in China before then. Meanwhile, leopard cats, which once lived among humans, seem to have disappeared from human settlements around 150 C.E.
The collapse of the Eastern Han dynasty and widespread climate changes at that time likely played a role, leading to a decline in farms and villages.
Any leopard cats that survived may have returned to the wild. If they reappeared centuries later, they would have found that house cats had taken their place. Today, leopard cats coexist with humans only in the form of Bengals, a breed developed in the 1960s by crossbreeding them with domestic cats.
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
