Did Neanderthals keep cats?
The fact that all modern domestic cats share common mitochondrial DNA with ancestors 130,000 years ago in no way indicates that cats were domesticated back then. Their coexistance with humans began as humans started to raise grain (since this attracted mice which attracted cats). No wonder this began in the levant- that’s where grain was first domesticated. Neandertal remains have been found in the region, for example Shanidar Cave in Iraq and Tabun Cave in Israel, but thousands of years before domestication of plants or animals. Wild felines would have had very little interest in Neandertals. Where it says 130,000 years in the article sure looks like a typo to me. They mean to say “13,000” probably, because they say that the evidence for domestication is 9,500 years old and researchers believe it may have occurred 3,000 years earlier, which would be 12,500 years ago, or around 13,000. Certainly 130,000 seems pretty far off the mark when talking about domesticated anything.
Related Questions
- Is it fair to say that, as a human, you enjoy the chaos and beauty of wilderness and nature, but not enough to prefer it over right angles, sterilized order, pathological security and rigorous predictability?
- Why were Neanderthals less intelligent than modern humans despite having bigger brains?
- Did Neanderthals have art? Did they paint and make jewelry?
