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Mosaic in Opus Vermiculatum
Roman mosaic with white tesserae featuring a central panel (emblema) in opus vermiculatum (micro tesserae), Floor of the triclinium of a Roman villa in Via Ardeatina in Rome, first quarter of the 1st century BCE.
The above panel depicts a cat trying to catch a bird in flight. The lower panel shows two ducks one of which is holding a lotus flower.
Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Rome.
Questions & Answers
When and where were cats first domesticated?
- It is unknown where cats were first domesticated, but it has been established they were so by c. 12,000 BCE in Mesopotamia.
Where did domesticated house cats come from?
- Domesticated house cats came from wild cats and it has been established that wild cats lived among humans 100,000 years ago in Mesopotamia. These wild cats eventually befriended humans and were domesticated by them.
Were dogs or cats domesticated first?
- Dogs were domesticated before cats. According to some cat owners, cats have never actually been domesticated.
Which ancient civilization is most closely associated with cats?
- Ancient Egypt is the civilization most closely associated with cats as one of their most popular goddesses, Bastet, was envisioned as a cat or a woman with a cat's head.
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License & Copyright
This image was first published on Flickr.
Original image by Carole Raddato. Uploaded by Carole Raddato, published on 08 October 2015. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon a work even for commercial reasons, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.
