Innovation No. 56 of 77 in the book
The House Cat
Cats kept for pest control and companionship
- When
- c. 3700 BCE
- Dynasty
- None (before the dynasties)
- Era
- Predynastic Period
No people bonded with cats like the Egyptians. Wild cats had drifted toward human grain stores across the region, but it was in Egypt, by around 3700 BCE, that the cat truly became a household pet.
Grain drew mice, mice drew cats, and the tamest cats earned their keep and stayed. In Egypt the working mouser crossed a line no other place pushed it past — into the home, with a name and a place by the family.
They were adored in life and mourned in death, painted on walls and mummified by the thousand. The whole idea of the cat as a beloved pet is Egyptian.
Your cat’s pampered life indoors was first invented on the Nile.
The story does not start in Egypt. In 2004, a burial at Shillourokambos in Cyprus, around 7500 BCE, was found to hold a wild cat laid beside a human — and since cats are not native to Cyprus, someone carried it there by boat. That is an isolated case, not a culture. The earliest evidence of cats being kept and cared for as part of household life comes from the Predynastic elite cemetery at Hierakonpolis, around 3700 BCE.
Frequently Asked Questions
So who domesticated the cat?
Biologically, the process began outside Egypt and long before the pharaohs. What Egypt did first was cultural: bringing the animal into the home as a named member of the household rather than a useful mouser at the granary door.
What did Herodotus say about Egyptian cats?
That the grief was extraordinary. Visiting in the fifth century BCE, he recorded that if a house caught fire the residents would ignore the flames and stand guard to stop the cats leaping into the blaze.