Mews and Nips: Cat Domestication Traced to Chinese Farmers 5,300 Years Ago

In a fascinating discovery, archaeologists have unearthed the first clear evidence of cats living among humans as semi-domesticated mousers about 5,300 years ago in China. The LA Times reports that this discovery fills in an enormous gap in experts’ understanding of cat domestication, but it has also surprised them: an ancient Chinese village was the last place they expected to find this kind of evidence. “This was a very unexpected find,” said study coauthor Fiona Marshall, a zooarchaeologis...