{"id":3755,"date":"2025-12-01T14:01:41","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T14:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/01\/the-romans-brought-cats-to-britain\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T14:01:43","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T14:01:43","slug":"the-romans-brought-cats-to-britain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/01\/the-romans-brought-cats-to-britain\/","title":{"rendered":"The Romans brought cats to Britain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>2025-12-01 14:01:40<\/b><br \/>\n<BR>Cats didn\u2019t just wander into Britain \u2014 the Romans marched them in.<BR><br \/>\nA sweeping new genetic study reveals that the moggies lounging on British sofas today owe their origins to felines ferried in by Roman legions roughly 1,900 years ago.<BR><br \/>\nFor decades, scientists argued over whether the domestic cat sprang from ancient Egypt, early farmers in Turkey, or some other prehistoric hotspot. <BR><br \/>\nNow, after analysing DNA from 87 cats spanning 10,000 years \u2014 70 of them ancient specimens \u2014 researchers say the modern domestic lineage emerged in north Africa around 2,000 years ago, before hitching rides along the Roman Empire\u2019s vast road network.<BR><br \/>\nThe study&#8217;s authors write: &#8220;Since the Roman Imperial era, cats more genetically similar to present-day domestic cats were spread across Europe from a distinct north African population.&#8221;<BR><br \/>\nThey pinpoint the earliest known example to a feline dated 50BC to 80AD at Mautern, Austria.<BR><br \/>\nOnce these proto-pets appeared, they spread fast \u2014 and in classic Roman style, often alongside the army.<BR><br \/>\nProfessor Jonathan B. Losos, an evolutionary biologist at Washington University in St Louis, said: &#8220;The ancient DNA records a quick spread of these domestic cats throughout much of Europe, often in concert with the Roman military, appearing in Britain around 100AD.&#8221;<BR><br \/>\nOne such moggy turned up in Fishbourne, England, perfectly timed with the Roman conquest \u2014 a whiskered witness to history.<BR><br \/>\nThe study also uncovered a surprising detour: domestic cats arrived in Sardinia and Corsica around 1,000 years before they appeared in mainland Europe. That early wave formed an isolated wildcat colony that still roams the islands today, genetically close to Moroccan wildcats.<BR><br \/>\nThe research is part of Project Felix, an effort to untangle the stubbornly mysterious history of cat domestication.<BR><br \/>\nProfessor Losos said: &#8220;The study is part of an ongoing project, Project Felix, which also aims to tackle other outstanding questions concerning cat domestication. Ever sphinx-like, cats give up their secrets grudgingly.&#8221;<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"> Visit Bang Bizarre (main website) <\/a><br \/>\n<br \/><script src=\"https:\/\/geo.dailymotion.com\/player\/xtbac.js\" data-video=\"\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2025-12-01 14:01:40 Cats didn\u2019t just wander into Britain \u2014 the Romans marched them in. A sweeping new genetic study reveals that the moggies lounging on British sofas today owe their&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3071,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bizarre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3755"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3756,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3755\/revisions\/3756"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}