Ancient DNA research has challenged long-standing assumptions about the arrival of domestic cats in Europe by revealing a far later and more complex history than previously thought. Genomic analyses reveal distinct North African origins, multiple introduction events, and unexpected dispersal timelines that question earlier archaeological interpretations and reshape understanding of cat domestication.
Most Latest Evidence Shows Cats Entered Europe Through North Africa
Critical Problems With Earlier Assumptions
The story of how domestic cats arrived in Europe was clouded by uncertainty. Available remains from Archaeological sites were hard to interpret, and theories clashed over whether cats arrived with early farmers or later trade networks.
For many years, scientists believed that domestic cats spread into Europe thousands of years ago, during the Neolithic period, when early farmers migrated from the Middle East into Europe. This theory suggests that cats followed these farming communities because early settlements stored grain, which attracted rodents, which in turn attracted cats.
Another alternative theory suggests that these animals arrived via Egyptian or later Mediterranean trade between the first millennium BCE and the first centuries CE. This was when Egyptian ports, Phoenician networks, and later Roman maritime routes carried goods, rodents, and later cats across the Mediterranean, enabling the gradual introduction into coastal areas.
But archaeological evidence about the aforementioned assumptions was not only weak but also inconsistent. Ancient cat bones were difficult to identify accurately because wildcats and domestic cats look extremely similar. As a result, the timeline and geographic origins of domestic cats in Europe remained uncertain, with debates still unresolved.
The fact that cats were first domesticated from the African wildcat or Felis lybica somewhere in the broad region that includes the Near East and North Africa still stands. But determining how cats spread from those regions into Europe required reliable evidence. Modern techniques have now provided new tools and approaches to resolve this issue.
A large group of researchers led by geneticist Claudio Ottoni of the University of Rome Tor Vergata used ancient DNA from ancient cat bones collected in archeological sites across Europe, North Africa, Sardinia, and Anatolia. These ancient samples were then compared with the DNA samples of modern cats living in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.
Different Waves of Late Arrivals in Europe
Results uncover multiple waves of cat migration, including an early introduction to Sardinia and a later arrival across mainland Europe, highlighting a complex domestication process and the lasting influence of North African lineages.
The findings show a surprising and multilayered history of how domestic cats first reached Europe and overturn long-standing beliefs about early human-cat relationships. Genomic evidence from the DNA samples indicates later arrivals, distinct North African origins, and multiple introduction events that reshaped European cat populations across different periods.
• Later Arrival in Europe
Genetic analyses of ancient and modern DNA samples show that domestic cats appeared in Europe only around 2000 years ago. This contradicts earlier assumptions that they accompanied Neolithic farmers several millennia earlier.
• North African Genetic Source
Comparative genome studies identify North Africa as the primary region of origin for the cats that eventually became established across Europe. This replaces earlier theories that linked their spread to Near Eastern agricultural migrations.
• Multiple Introduction Waves
The data indicate at least two separate arrivals: an early introduction of northwest African wildcats into Sardinia during the 1st millennium BCE, and a later arrival of domestic cats from another North African population into mainland Europe.
• Misidentified Early Remains
Several ancient specimens previously thought to be early domestic cats in Europe were revealed by DNA testing to be European wildcats. This highlights the difficulty of relying solely on skeletal features for identifying early domestication.
• Complex Domestication Landscape
The findings point to a broader and more intricate domestication process, involving different North African populations, human trade networks, and later maritime activities that influenced how cats spread across the Mediterranean world.
Insights Into Early Human-Cat Relationships
The study reframes cat domestication as a nuanced process involving multiple populations, human trade networks, and maritime movement. This offers new insights into the tangled histories of humans and their feline companions.
The aforementioned findings indicate that cat genetic turnover in Europe is concentrated much later, and this is consistent with major human-mediated movement of cats during the last two millennia, such as maritime trade and urbanization in the Roman period. This repositions the timing and geographic source of the main cat diaspora into Europe.
Note that the timing dovetails with foremost shifts in human trade, shipping, urbanism, and pest control practices in the Mediterranean world during the classical and Roman eras. Historical and archaeological evidence make a scenario plausible in which seafaring and trade carried cats across the Mediterranean. The genomic results are consistent with this.
However, while the study used genomic-level data from 87 genomes across time and space, which is a strong dataset for inferring population origins, admixture, and timing, it still have some caveats. Access to archaeological samples is uneven geographically and temporally. The findings could be refined in the future as more ancient genomes are recovered.
Precise dating of dispersal events is also dependent on sample ages and the specific assumptions of demographic models. Moreover, genetics alone cannot prove the exact human behaviors that influenced or resulted in the migration of cats from North Africa, only that gene flow and population turnover occurred at particular times and from particular regions.
FURTHER READING AND REFERENCE
- De Martino, M., De Cupere, B., Rovelli, V., Serventi, P., Mouraud, B., Baldoni, M., Di Corcia, T., Geiger, S., Alhaique, F., Alves, P. C., Buitenhuis, H., Ceccaroni, E., Cerilli, E., De Grossi Mazzorin, J., Detry, C., Dowd, M., Fiore, I., Gourichon, L., Grau-Sologestoa, I., … Ottoni, C. 2025. “The Dispersal of Domestic Cats from North Africa to Europe Around 2000 Years Ago.” Science. 390(6776). DOI: 1126/science.adt2642h