NPR: Cats First Domesticated People in the Near East

Cats First Domesticated People in the Near East

Our last piece of the week comes to us from the journal Science.

Research now indicates that the common cat (well, humans think they're common -- we all know what cats think) first became domesticated in the Near (or Middle) East. Meanwhile, all the cats that nowadays tear up the curtains ... or walk across computer keyboards ... or lie on top of the TV, one paw hanging in front of the screen, have common ancestors that lived in the Near East about 130,000 years ago.

And, as we all already knew, it's really the cats who domesticated people. Well, in a way. The Washington Post's report notes that the study indicates we didn't go looking for cats, they "sort of domesticated themselves," as a researcher put it. They likely came to us because we had a food source -- rodents that ate the grain stored in humans' first agricultural settlements more than 9,000 years ago, NPR's Nell Boyce reports. Fortunately, cats continue to let us hang out with them.

My cat, Alibey, is actually from Turkey -- my wife found her on a Turkish island during a research trip and brought her back to America. I have no plans to tell Alibey all this news about the Near East as the home of all cats. She thinks she's special enough as it is.

If you see anything interesting this weekend, don't forget to drop us a line at newsblog@npr.org.

4:49 PM ET | 06-29-2007 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

Amazing! And to think, it only took you humans 10,000 years to figure this out.

Sent by Gizmo | 7:36 PM ET | 07-01-2007

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