CATS had caught the fancy of early Egyptians long before they were fully domesticated. In fact, people in Egypt began capturing and keeping wild cats – the first tentative step toward domestication – as early as 3700 BC.
Archaeologists have long known that Egyptians had domesticated cats by sometime in the third millennium BC, when cats began to take on religious significance. However, little is known about the precise timing, especially in the early stages of the domestication process.
A cat skeleton found in a cemetery in Hierakonpolis, an ancient settlement in southern Egypt, gives a glimpse into this distant age. It…
