Cat And Human Relationships Go Back Thousands Of Years Longer Than Once Thought

 Ancient scarfed cat 

"Cat graves unearthed in an Egyptian burial ground dating back to the 4th millennium BCE suggest that human and feline relationships go back a lot further than commonly believed.

Said one of the researchers, "It is clear that there was a close relationship with humans that predate the oldest accepted evidence for domestic cat in Egypt by almost two millennia."

That's not to say that it was a mutually happy one.

The cats that were dug up had been sacrificed; however, scientific analysis of the remains points to the felines having been in the close company of humans for a stretch of time prior to their demise.

One of the specimens found was a jungle cat that had clearly suffered a bone fracture.

Unique about the break is that it appeared to have been cared for by a person, implying that before the cat was an offering, it was, at least for a little while, under the care of humans.

Also found was a grave containing 6 cats. Several are thought to be unrelated to the others and given the proximity of their young ages, researchers do not believe they were all captured shortly before being sacrificed. It's believed they were probably living in the village with its people."