When Odysseus finally returned to Ithaca, no one recognized him — except for his faithful old dog. The bond between humans and dogs is ancient, stretching back to the Ice Age.
The cat’s path, by contrast, has been quieter and far more mysterious.
When people picture the ancient relationship between humans and cats, Egypt usually comes to mind. Bastet, the cat-headed goddess, mummified felines, and temple offerings all speak of a culture that adored and revered them.
However, new archaeological evidence tells a much bigger story — one that places the Balkans, specifically the Vinča civilization, among the very first in Europe to live alongside cats.
This article was inspired by The history of the domestic cat in Central Europe, published by Cambridge University Press in 2022.
Cats Before Europe Knew Cats
Domestic cats (Felis catus) descend from the African wildcat (Felis silvestris lybica). They began their relationship with humans in the Fertile Crescent around 10,000 BC. The grain stores attracted mice, and wildcats followed.
In other words, while dogs were the steadfast companions of hunter-gatherers, cats became the trusted allies of the first agricultural societies.
By 7500 BC, they had spread beyond their original range, moving with early farmers through Anatolia, across the Aegean, and into Europe.
Two of the earliest known European cat sites are:
- Cyprus — A human-cat burial at Shillourokambos from about 7500 BC shows cats were already close companions. However, Cyprus is only culturally linked to Europe. Geographically, it is an island in the eastern Mediterranean, in Western Asia.
- At the same time, the cats appear in the Mesolithic & Neolithic Serbia. Evidence from the same era suggests cats arrived here just as early, traveling with migrating farmers and traders.
This makes Serbia one of the first places in Europe to have domestic cats.
Vinča Civilization: An Early Cat Homeland
Although no artifacts from the Mesolithic sites of Lepenski Vir or Padina reveal how their people viewed cats, the first possible representations may appear in the Neolithic Vinča culture — part of the cultural continuity in the Danube region.
The Neolithic Vinča civilization, known for its advanced settlements, symbolic script, and refined pottery, also appears to have been an early adopter of feline companions. Whether fully domesticated or still semi-wild, these cats played the same role they had in the Fertile Crescent: protecting stored grain by keeping rodent populations down.
Vinča figurines are quite abstract, but some are undeniably feline, placing them among the oldest domestic cat representations in the world. Moreover, some of these artefacts are strikingly similar to those from ancient Egypt.
Similar figurines appear in Japan’s Jomon culture, but much later, around 1000 BC.
Neolithic people may have seen cats as more than just mousers. In later mythologies with probable Neolithic roots, cats are often linked to fertility and the household — sleek, graceful creatures tied to abundance, female power, and protection of stored grain.
Their nocturnal habits and watchful eyes could have given them an aura of mystery, connecting them to the moon and the cycles of nature.
Over time, these associations evolved: in the Middle Ages, cats were sometimes seen as symbols of idleness or even mischief, yet they never lost their place near the hearth.
We may never know exactly what the Vinča people thought of cats, but it was probably something along these lines.
From Meow to Mačka — A Shared Onomatopoeia
Another link between Egypt and the Balkans lies in the way both cultures named these little mewers.
The Egyptian word for cat was miw (masculine) or miwt (feminine), an unmistakable echo of a cat’s call.
In the Balkans, South Slavic languages still use mačka (“cat”) – another onomatopoeic form of “mau”, which is a cat’s call in this region.
In Cretan Hieroglyphic, Linear A, and Linear B, the pictogram of a cat consistently designates the syllable MA. This association can only be pre-Greek, as the Greek word for “cat” was αἴλουρος (aílouros), a completely different root.
Cat – The Phoenician k-t Word Family
The other great cat-word family sounds like — cat, kot, chat — and it may have a different origin.
My view is that it could go back to an unattested Phoenician root k-t for “cat” or “feline,” carried by maritime traders into the Mediterranean and Europe long before Latin cattus became standard. This would explain why kot-type words appear in Slavic, Baltic, and other languages independently of Roman influence.
The original world was probably similar to the Nubian word kaddîska (wildcat). The same word appears in Berber languages, which is why I believe Phoenician sailors carried it northward along their trade routes.
Final Thoughts
In this conclusion, I have nothing new to add that hasn’t already been covered in the article.
What I do want to highlight is:
- The remarkable fact that Serbia is the first place in Europe where domesticated cats appeared, and that
- the Neolithic figurines from Vinča are the oldest representations of domestic cats anywhere in the world!
Unfortunately, like many important discoveries, this fascinating Cambridge study has gone virtually unnoticed in Serbian science and public discourse — an astonishing oversight, especially considering that three years have already passed since its publication.
