Felines are considered comforting companions, internet sensations, and tiny malevolent hunters. For millennia, cats have stood alongside humans, more or less. (Perhaps in the general vicinity of humans is a better descriptor.) While 10,000 years of history is difficult to sum up in a simple blog post, today we will examine some of the highlights of cat history.
The Domestication of Cats
The first evidence of the domestication of cats is a grave from Cyprus, which is approximately 9,200 years old. Cats are not native to Cyprus, indicating the feline had been brought over to Cyprus from elsewhere. And its presence within the grave indicates its importance within the culture. However, it is believed the history of cats began even earlier. 10,000 years ago, humans began settling in the Fertile Crescent (what is now the Near East). They farmed, producing a surplus of food that had to be stored. This surplus drew in rodents, who started congregating around the stored grains and other foods. This had the effect of also attracting their natural predator: the wild cat. Because of the abundant food source around humans, cats learned to tolerate the presence of humans and other cats during mealtimes. For the farmers, cats provided pest control. They were brought on travel across the seas to other parts of Europe and the Mediterranean to control rodents.
Egyptian cats were domesticated later than the wild cats of the Fertile Crescent. They were revered for their ability to kill venomous snakes and gained religious importance. They were taken aboard river boats on the Nile River to keep the venomous river snakes at bay. They were later taken on longer voyages, even appearing on Viking ships.
Cats today are very similar to ancient wild cats. They were not selectively bred like dogs and little was done to alter their genetics or behavior except to make them more docile.
Moments in the History of Cats
“In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this.”
Terry Pratchett
Egypt
The Egyptian cat’s predation of venomous snakes extended even into godhood. Mafdet was a cat-headed deity in the Egyptian pantheon who protected the Pharoah against snakes, scorpions, and evil, just as real life cats often did. Over 4,000 years ago, a wall painting depicts a cat with a collar in the Pharaoh’s quarters, likely performing such a role. The domestic cat was considered to be an incarnation of the goddess Bastet, protecting the home from pests. And the lion-headed Sekhmet was the protector of pharaohs. As such, the domestic cat has a sacred status and were often mummified and placed in cat cemeteries. Up until Roman occupation of Egypt, killing a cat was a serious crime, for which we have at least evidence of one instance of lunching a Roman man for killing a cat. Housecats were rare amongst ancient Greeks and Romans, who preferred to keep weasels as rodent control.
PLAGUES AND WITCHCRAFT
In later years, cats became associated with witchcraft, which likely stemmed from their popularity within pagan religions – linked to the Egyptian Bastet and the Greek Artemis. They were thought to be witches’ familiars – particularly black cats. The Church accepted the existence of witches in 1484, which cats were inextricably linked to after a papal bull issued by Pope Gregory IX which discussed supposed “Luciferians” and the devil appearing in the form of a black cat. Cats were condemned to death alongside alleged witches during the witchcraft frenzy of the 16th and 17th centuries.
We’ve already talked in a previous blog post about how cats were thought to be carriers of the plague during an outbreak in the 17th century in England, and so, they were ordered to be killed (alongside dogs), resulting in the death of more than 100,000 dogs and cats and their hunters being given bounties for their work. This, of course, exacerbated the effects of the plague, which was, in fact, carried within fleas on rats.
UNSINKABLE SAM
On May 27th, 1941, a German battleship, the Bismarck, sank after a firefight with the HMS Cossack, a British ship. Only 118 of the 2,200 crew members of the Bismarck lived through the sinking of the ship. The British began to collect survivors as prisoners of war and found a black and white cat holding on to floating debris. They took the cat aboard their vessel and named him Oscar. Oscar became the Cossack’s ship cat. However, only five months later, on October 24, 1941, the Cossack was damaged by a torpedo from a German U-boat and the crew had to be rescued. Miraculously, Oscar also survived this sinking, earning him the nickname Unsinkable Sam. Oscar was brought to Gibraltar and served aboard three more vessels before coming to serve on the HMS Ark Royal, which also sank after being hit with a U-boat torpedo. Once again, Oscar was found clinging to a plank in the aftermath and was retrieved. He was retired after this episode and went to live in the Belfast Home for Sailors. He died 14 years later.
Ship cats have held a pivotal role aboard ships for centuries, perhaps even millennia. They control the rodent population, which can cause damage to ship supplies, from electrical wiring, to ropes, to cargo. Rodents also carry disease and ship cats help keep that under control. As well, they can boost crew morale and offer companionship to sailors. Some cats also have special gifts, such as Kiddo aboard the Airship America, who was said to be better at predicting bad weather than a barometer.
The Sapphic Academic 