History and mythology The earliest written records of cat domestication date to ancient Egypt circa 4000 BC, to keep mice and rats away from their grain stores. However, a recently discovered gravesite in Shillourokambos, Cyprus, dating to 7500 BC contains the skeletons of a ceremonially buried human and a young cat, although cats are not native to Cyprus.
This is thought to indicate that cats were domesticated (or perhaps just tamed) at least this early. The cat found in the Cyprus grave was more similar to the ancestral wildcat species than to modern housecats.
Ancient Egyptians regarded cats as embodiments of the goddess Bast, also known as Bastet or Thet; the penalty for killing a cat was death, and when a cat died it was sometimes mummified in the same way as a human. In the Middle Ages, though, cats were often thought to be witches' familiars, and during festivities were sometimes burnt alive or thrown off tall buildings. Today some people believe that white cats are unlucky, or that it is unlucky if a black cat crosses your path, but others believe that black cats are lucky.
The cat is one of the 12-year cycle of animals in the Vietnamese zodiac. It does not, however, appear in the Chinese zodiac. Legend states that the rat, who invited the animals to the Jade Emperor's palace to be chosen for the zodiac, forgot to invite the cat, so the cat declared the rat its natural enemy.