Cat Evolution: From Sphinx to Siamese
The cute critters have more history than you might realize.
By James Yang
It’s 5 pm and your tubby housecat hasn’t moved an inch from your lap ever since he waddled back from his snack bowl in the morning. Turns out you don’t make the rules at home, Mister Whiskers does—so things aren’t too different from ancient times. From as early as 7,000 years ago, the Felidae family has occupied a significant role in human lives as agricultural helpers. Farmers in the Fertile Crescent benefited from the cats’ ecological position as carnivores that hunted pests, like mice, which infested their crops.
The importance of the feline population was largely seen in ancient Egyptian civilization following 2,000 BCE, where they were admired and kept as household pets for their predatory tendencies. Cats were all the rage with the Egyptians and quickly became beloved companions and representations of divinity within ancient culture. For example, the Egyptian goddess of protection and fertility, Bastet, was often represented as a house cat, and Egyptian armies rode into war believing they were under the protection of the lion-headed goddess of war, Sekhmet.
Cats were consecrated as a symbol of dignity, fed with treats fit for kings and dressed in jewelry. These creatures were highly revered in ancient society—in fact, the Great Sphinx of Giza, built approximately 4,500 years ago, depicted the head of pharaoh Khafre with the body of a resting lion.
What did all of this fame mean for the kitties? Some of them lived rich and happy lives in Egypt, but unfortunately many of those pusses were prepared as mummified sacrifices to the gods. Feline love took the world by storm, and cats were soon associated with powerful themes like royalty and courage. The Bamana people of West Africa wore lion masks to honor their core beliefs in life after death, and the members of the Kingdom of Ethiopia kept lion teeth to represent their fierce power as the ‘Lion of Judah’ for more than 900 years and connection to the biblical King Solomon, believed to have been the wisest man who had ever lived.
On the other side of the planet in Central and South America, the Mayan civilization’s sun god-king, Kinich Ahau, was thought to transform into a jaguar every night in order to travel to the underworld due to the fact that jaguars live in the dark, humid Amazon Forest. These ancient civilizations believed that their priests had a similar ability, which gave them the power to heal their people or destroy their enemies.
The Fierce! The Story of Cats exhibition at NHM displays several of the ceremonial objects used long ago, including a jaguar-head grindstone used during ancient rituals to mill raw grain into flour, a religious symbol for death and rebirth.
Much of human exposure to felines nowadays is limited to the common domestic cat, Felidae catus, or their larger distant relatives found in zoos rather than the wild. Many of the animals have been hunted to extinction or are threatened by habitat loss. Tigers, for example, are no longer found in 95 percent of the habitats where they lived only 100 years ago, and of the seven native feline species found at La Brea Tar Pits, only mountain lions and bobcats can still be found in the wild in Los Angeles.
While their population has vastly dwindled, the cultural significance of cats remains unchanged. Lion dances are held every year in Asia to celebrate the Lunar New Year and ward off evil spirits in hopes of greater harvests and health. Respected as divine animals in Asian mythology, statues of lions and tigers are often placed near palaces, tombs, administrative buildings, temples, and monasteries in China. They have always served as a symbol of strength and protection—and as recent popular media features, companionship!
You can find a domesticated cat in many homes across the world, where both children and grown-ups are enamored by kitty charm. Several cultural icons, movies, and even theme parks revolve around cats, like Hello Kitty of Sanrio, Pusheen, Garfield, Pink Panther (1963), and The Lion King (1994), and they are known globally even today.
Have you ever opened YouTube to gush over cute cat videos online? Now you know you aren’t the only one—even great kings and warlords from thousands of years ago would have done the same!
