How did cats appear?

Scientists still do not have a single view on the origin of the domestic cat. What kind of properties people did not endow with cats! In ancient Egypt, they were idolized, they were worshiped and sacrificed; in the Middle Ages, the Vatican accused cats of being associated with the devil, making them faithful helpers of witches and evil spirits. How did cats actually appear in human life?

wild ancestor

According to the classical theory, the ancestor of the domestic cat is the steppe cat, which still lives in Africa, Asia, India, Transcaucasia and even Kazakhstan. Steppe cats are larger than their domestic relatives, they have many varieties of color: from sandy to spotted and striped. These animals lead a solitary lifestyle and prefer to hunt small animals and rodents.

Several thousand years ago in the Middle East there was a region with the poetic name of the Fertile Crescent, which included the territories of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia and Assyria. Called by archaeologists the cradle of civilizations, this region was the beginning of pastoralism and agriculture about 10 years ago. Along with grain (wheat), people have new enemies – rodents. Then people first tamed five steppe cats that protected the grain. They became the progenitors of all domestic cats that exist today.

Surprisingly, the first evidence of cat domestication was found in Cyprus: there, scientists discovered a burial made about 9 years ago.

It is known that cats were brought to the island by all the same people from the Fertile Crescent. As for Egypt and the deification of the domestic cat by the Egyptians, events here began to develop much later – around the third millennium BC.

By the way, cats came to Europe together with skillful merchants – the Phoenicians. And again, these animals were waiting for success. In ancient Greece, cats were valued more than the lions that inhabited the region at the time. Cats were very rare and therefore had a very high value. The rush demand for these pets began to fall only by the XNUMXth century AD, when the image of a cat began to be gradually demonized.

The appearance of cats in Russia

It is impossible to say exactly when cats appeared in Russia, but it is known for certain that they arrived with seafarers even before Epiphany, that is, before the XNUMXth century. They immediately won the status of respected animals. For one fluffy pet they paid more than for a cow or a ram. By the way, a dog cost about the same at that time.

The name “cat” itself is not originally Russian, but comes from the Latin “kattus”. Females, by the way, were called “kotka” until the XNUMXth century. Only later, “k” was added to the diminutive “kosha” – the modern word “cat” turned out.

In Russia, cats have never been persecuted for their association with the devil. On the contrary, the cat is the only animal that can enter the temple. And all because it has long helped a person in the fight against rodents. At the beginning of the XNUMXth century, Peter I even issued a corresponding decree: to have a cat in all barns to guard the grain and scare away rodents. The king himself became an example by taking the cat Vasily to the Winter Palace.

A few years later, the residence of the imperial family suffered a misfortune: mice and rats divorced in the palace. Then Elizaveta Petrovna ordered 30 of the best rat-catchers to be delivered from Kazan. By the way, from that moment the history of the Hermitage cats began, which to this day fulfill their duty.