> Interesting point. I seem to recall though, that the cat didn't make it
> into Greco-Roman area till the 10th century BCE but then were spread
throughout
> Europe by the Roman Empire (and its trading patterns).
There's evidence that the Phoenecians/Carthaginians spread black cats around the Mediterranean on their trade routes. In classical Athens, house snakes were the preferred means of dealing with rodents, I believe, though cats were present from about 1400 BC.
There are cat footprints on clay tiles excavated at Londinium and Caesaromagus.
> However, as an aside it is currently thought that they were first
domesticated
> in Mesopotamia based on genetic markers.
Yes, what is now northern Syria, African wild cats. There's some evidence that 'wild cats' were living in close proximity to humans very much earlier, as proto-domestic animals. Curiously, 'Persian' cats are more closely related to western European cats than other Asian breeds.
> Mesopotamia, is, of course, Dara Happa Lite. I do like some implications
that
> long-hair domestic cats were tamed (as such) by the Norse to use as foot
warmers
> and rodent catchers albeit considerably later in time than their
warmer-climate cousins.
The Norse seem to have liked and spread ginger cats, which originated in Asia and must have been traded north along the Rus river trade-routes before being introduced to the British Isles.
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