Elin Gregory

As last year, just click on the image to the left to be taken to the A-Z website and links to other blogs taking part. Good luck to everyone and I hope the inspiration keeps flowing.

C is for Cat

I’ve been told that the first iteration of the World Wide Web was all about experimentation and the second was about easy access to pr0n but as soon as web.2 came along, the cheap and easy one that you didn’t need a degree in Information Technology to use, it became over run with cats.

It’s no wonder really. Cats have been with us for a long time, worshipped as gods by some cultures, persecuted as devils by others.

They appear in Egyptian tomb paintings and in Chinese mythology but so far the oldest evidence to be found is from the island of Cyprus.

Archaeologists excavating the Neolithic village of Shillourokambos discovered the burial of a person of about 30 years of age with the bones of an eight month old cat carefully positioned to mirror the burial of the human. The human was provided with grave goods to denote a very high status and it is possible that the cat was killed in order to be part of the offering. The burial dates to approx 9500 BCE and since cats are not indigenous to Cyprus they must have been imported.

Careful measurements of the bones indicate that the cat was of a similar type to the African wildcat in this picture. Click on the pic for more information.

Of course, cats are not our oldest companions, but more of that tomorrow.