Invest in History Education
Image Gallery
Saharan Rock Carving of Two Cats Fighting
This prehistoric Saharan rock carving from Wadi Mathendous in the Fezzan, Libya depicts two cats fighting. Similar petroglyphs can be found in rock escarpments throughout the Sahara, providing valuable clues to the people who inhabited and travelled through this region between 10,000 and 6,000 BCE.
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.
External Links
License & Copyright
This image was first published on Flickr.
Original image by David Stanley. Uploaded by Arienne King, published on 23 January 2018. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution. This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. 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.
