The group of international scientists from Italy and the Great Britain rejected the leading theory about the origin of domestic cats. Two large -scale genetic studies have shown that modern pets spread to Europe thanks to the Vikings, Romans and religious cults. Results published at the following address Portal Regional Scientific Materials Biorxiv.
Experts analyzed 70 ancient cat genome from 97 archaeological monuments, 2416 bone cats from 206 locations and also examined modern examples from North Africa and Europe.
The data showed Tunisia as a possible historical place for the domestication of cats. In Europe, the first domestic cats appeared only in the 1st century AD. This emerged thousands of years after the previous evaluations, and combined the domestication of cats with the first farmers of Neolithic times.
Researchers devoted two waves to cat migration. II. Century e. The wild African cats fell into Sardinia and then spread widely to the European territory during the Roman Empire.
Further analysis showed that it was already in the 1st millennium BC. Cats can go to Europe along the trade routes of the Iron Age.
Scientists stressed the role of cultural factors. In ancient Egypt, cats (Goddess Bastet) were defined, the Greeks and the Romans associated them with Artemis and Diana, and the Scandinavians accompanied the cats of the goddess Freyaa.
“This is not just a struggle against rodents. Religious status, cats with a valuable“ product için for trade and diplomatic gifts, ”he said.
The study also documented the sad fate of European wild cats. Since the 1st millennium AD, the population decreases due to the loss of the environment and the mixing of species.
Previously, scientists open The secret of the emergence of domestic cats in ancient China.
Source: Gazeta
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