Human mediated dispersal of cats in the Neolithic Central Europe

Abstract

28 Archaeological and genetic evidence suggest that all domestic cats derive from the Near Eastern 29 wildcat (Felis silvestris lybica) and were domesticated twice, first in the Near East around 10 000 30 years ago and for the second time in Ancient Egypt ca. 3 500 years ago. The spread of the 31 domesticated form in Europe occurred much later, primarily mediated by Greek and Phoenician 32 traders and afterwards by Romans who introduced cats to Western and Central Europe around 2 000 33 years ago. We investigated mtDNA of Holocene Felis remains and provide evidence of an 34 unexpectedly early presence of cats bearing the Near Eastern wildcat mtDNA haplotypes in Central 35 Europe, being ahead of Roman Period by over 2 000 years. The appearance of the Near Eastern 36 wildcats in Central Europe coincide with the peak of Neolithic settlement density, moreover most of 37 those cats belonged to the same mtDNA lineages as those domesticated in the Near East. Thus, 38 although we cannot fully exclude that the Near Eastern wildcats appeared in Central Europe as a 39 result of introgression with European wildcat, our findings strongly support the hypothesis that the 40 Near Eastern wildcats spread across Europe together with the first farmers, perhaps as commensal 41 animals. We also found that cats dated to the Neolithic period belonged to different mtDNA 42 lineages than those brought to Central Europe in Roman times, this supports the hypothesis that the 43 gene pool of contemporary European domestic cats might have been established from two different 44 source populations that contributed in different periods. 45 46