Ancestors of domestic cats in Neolithic Central Europe: Isotopic evidence of a synanthropic diet
Krajcarz M, Krajcarz MT, Baca M, Baumann C, Van Neer W, Popović D, Sudoł-Procyk M, Wach B, Wilczyński J, Wojenka M, Bocherens H.
Abstract
Most of today’s domesticates began as farm animals, but cat domestication took a different path. Cats became commensal of humans somewhere in the Fertile Crescent, attracted to early farmers’ settlements by rodent pests. Cat remains from Poland dated to 4,200 to 2,300 y BCE are currently the earliest evidence for the migration of the Near Eastern wildcat to Central Europe. Tracking the possible synanthropic origin of that migration, we used stable isotopes to investigate the paleodiet. We found that the ecological balance was already changed due to the expansion of Neolithic farmlands. We conclude that among the Late Neolithic Near Eastern wildcats from Poland were free-living individuals, who preyed on rodent pests and shared ecological niches with native European wildcats. Keywords: wildcat, synanthropic species, stable isotopes, paleoecology, trophic niche
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