Research overview: archaeology and genetics of cat domestication

The story of how cats joined human society blends zooarchaeology with molecular genetics. This overview surveys evidence from early Neolithic Cyprus, where a cat was buried beside a human roughly nine thousand years ago, through ancient Egyptian veneration, to the global spread of cats along trade routes. It integrates these findings with mitochondrial and nuclear data showing descent from the Near Eastern wildcat and ongoing gene flow with local wild populations. The survey discusses why cat domestication was a prolonged, commensal process driven by mutual benefit rather than deliberate breeding, and how genetic and archaeological timelines are being reconciled.