The late arrival of domestic cats in China via the Silk Road after 3,500 years of human-leopard cat commensalism
To trace the history of human-cat interactions and the arrival of domestic cats (Felis catus) in East Asia, we analyzed 22 small felid bones excavated from 14 archaeological sites across China spanning 5,000 years. Genomic and radiocarbon evidence revealed that commensal leopard cats (Prionailurus bengalensis) appeared in anthropogenic environments at least 5,400 years ago and persisted until 150 CE. After a gap of several centuries, the earliest known domestic cat in China (c. 730 CE), reconstructed as a fully or partially white cat, was identified in Shaanxi during the Tang Dynasty. Genomic analysis combining 130 modern and ancient Eurasian cat specimens suggested an origin of Chinese domestic cats from the Levant and a likely merchant-mediated dispersal via the Silk Road. Commensal leopard cats and domestic cats once independently inhabited ancient human settlements in China but followed divergent sociocultural paths with only domestic cats becoming fully domesticated and globally introduced.
Authors
- Alexandra Jamieson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0979-5762)
- Wenquan Fan
- Jing Shao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6744-5771)
- Chong Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4171-2568)
- H. Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4801-8771)
- Greger Larson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4092-0392)
- Yan Pan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3164-5939)
- Dianjie Lu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5435-5307)
- Joel M. Alves (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6138-9134)
- Laurent Frantz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8030-3885)
- Sean Doherty (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5503-2734)
- Lianjian Yue
- Xin Sun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5902-9949)
- Yu He (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1323-4730)
- Xianzhu Wu
- Wuzhan Yang
- Shu‐Jin Luo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3515-8070)
- Sofia Granja Martins
- Zhuang Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0491-2416)
- Aurélie Manin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1061-3754)
- Xiaohong Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3819-0829)
- Jing Yuan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6939-9676)
- Weilin Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2852-1903)
- Canping Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4021-8592)
- Shugang Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6964-8989)
- Xiao Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2935-2371)
- Zhipeng Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8726-4663)
- Ke Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5090-8186)
- Ziyi Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8359-0533)
- Yang Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-5631-9127)
- Zhendong Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1024-3420)
- Zihan Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-1334-027X)
- Wang Juan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5253-1549)
- Zhouyong Sun
- Yan Zhuang
- Qian Ma
- Songmei Hu
- Fulai Xing
- Miaomiao Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-1780-5336)
- Pengcheng Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-8471-4648)
- Sicheng Han
- Ziyu Cui (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-0077-5047)
- Yu Han
- Quanfa Cai
- Lanhui Peng
Institutions
- Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CN)
- University of Science and Technology of China (CN)
- Chongqing Normal University (CN)
- Sun Yat-sen University (CN)
- Shanxi University (CN)
- Peking University (CN)
- University of Exeter (GB)
- Fudan University (CN)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Oxford Archaeology (GB)
- Anyang Institute of Technology (CN)
- Institute of Archaeology (CN)
- Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Heritage and Archaeology (CN)
- Center for Life Sciences (CN)
- Department of Archaeology (LK)
- Yulin University (CN)
- Shaanxi Yulin Energy Group (CN)
- Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (DE)
- Hebei Normal University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Cell Genomics
- Published
- 2025-11-27
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2025.101099
- Primary Topic
- Human-Animal Interaction Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- National Key Research and Development Program of China