The people of Quanhucun were masters of pottery, producing sturdy vessels for storing water and food, bowls for daily meals, and likely ritual objects. Their skilled hands shaped stone and bone to create essential tools: blades for harvesting, pestles for grinding millet, needles for sewing hides, and implements for working the land. The rhythmic sound of grinding stones and the rustle of primitive sickles in the fields formed the soundtrack of this industrious world.
But Quanhucun was also a place where wild nature and human life met in unexpected ways. While dogs moved freely among the houses, pigs were raised nearby, and bones of deer and other wild animals testified to their diet and hunting activities.

 
The cats of Quanhucun: silent shadows among the granaries
It is here, in this diligently built scenario of abundance, that the unexpected protagonist enters the scene: the cat. But not a cat as we imagine it today, placidly on the couch. The cats of Quanhucun were more elusive and wild creatures, with undeniable charm and ferocity. They were leopard cats [Prionailurus bengalensis (Kerr, 1792)], slender and agile felines with a spotted coat that helped them blend into the undergrowth and the dim light of the granaries. Their green or yellow eyes gleamed with the sharpness of a born predator, their sharp fangs and retractable claws ready for action. These felines, native to the forests and woodlands of Asia, were drawn to an irresistible resource: rodents. Field mice, voles, and other small mammals thrived in Quanhucun's millet stores, posing a constant threat to the village's sustenance. The leopard cats weren't "invited" in a formal sense; rather, they invited themselves, finding an unexpected abundance of prey readily available.

Archaeologists have found eight skeletons of these cats in close association with human settlements, suggesting a far- from-casual cohabitation. Imagine these spotted cats, like silent shadows, moving among the millet baskets, tails twitching and ears perked, ready to pounce on any suspicious movement. The farmers of Quanhucun, far from viewing them as pests, must have recognized their invaluable service. They tolerated their presence, passively encouraging it, knowing that every captured mouse meant more millet for their families.
This relationship was a perfect example of commensalism: the cats benefited from human resources (rodents), and humans indirectly benefited from pest control, without true domestication occurring. It was an unwritten pact, born of necessity and opportunism, a fascinating early chapter in the millennia-old history of the bond between humans and felines in China.

The evolution of the cat in China

The discovery at Quanhucun has redefined our understanding of the earliest interactions between humans and felines in East Asia. Until then, it was believed that the first evidence of cats in China was much more recent.
An even older human-cat relationship?
If the cats of Quanhucun were leopard cats used by humans, it's fair to wonder if this type of relationship, or even more embryonic stages of cohabitation, might be even older in China. Domestication is a gradual process, often preceded by millennia of opportunistic interactions. The conditions that fostered the bond at Quanhucun—agriculture and food storage—were present in various Neolithic cultures throughout China, increasing the likelihood of similar interactions elsewhere, even at older sites yet to be discovered or more thoroughly studied.

Cats in the ancient world and the arrival of the domestic cat in China

The domestication of the cat (Felis catus Linnaeus, 1758), as we know it today, originated in the Near East, presumably in Anatolia or the Levant. The oldest and most significant evidence comes from sites like Shillourokambos in Cyprus, where a cat was found buried next to a human approximately 9,500 years ago. This species of African wildcat (Felis lybica lybica Forster, 1780), from which all domestic cats descend, possessed a natural predisposition to tolerance and socialization with humans, differing from the more elusive and wild nature of the leopard cat.
In China, after Quanhucun, other feline remains have been found at later sites, such as Wuwangdun in Anhui province, but the precise identification between wild and domestic cats is often complex and subject to scientific debate.
The introduction of the domestic cat (Felis catus Linnaeus, 1758) into China is a separate and more recent chapter. These cats are believed to have arrived in China via the Silk Road trade routes, imported from Western Asian regions where their domestication was already well-established. The earliest unequivocal archaeological evidence of Felis catus in China dates to around 730 CE, during the Tang dynasty, with findings at Tongwan City, Shaanxi. These cats, with their millennia of generations of selection and adaptation to life with humans, were already "ready" to integrate into Chinese societies, offering not only effective rodent control but also companionship and affection.

Why did the domestic cat replace the leopard cat?
The prevalence of Felis catus over Prionailurus bengalensis in the role of "pest controller" and human companion is due to crucial factors:
• Behavioral predisposition: Felis catus inherited a greater tolerance towards humans and less aggression from its African ancestors. The leopard cat, while useful for hunting, remained a wild animal, difficult to tame and risky to keep in close contact.
• Ease of reproduction and selection: The domestic cat reproduced more easily in captivity, allowing for the (even unconscious) selection of desirable traits like docility, reduced fear of humans, and more playful behavior. This process wasn't replicable with the leopard cat.
• Logistical and social adaptability: The domestic cat could be easily transported and integrated into communities, offering not only a service but also companionship. Its adaptable nature made it a complete and highly efficient "package" for human needs. In summary, while Quanhucun shows us a fascinating opportunistic alliance with a wild feline, the arrival of the domestic cat, the result of a long process of co-evolution in another part of the world, marked an era of true cohabitation and affection, shaping the human-cat relationship we know today.

Bibliography
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Genome sequencing project reveals new secrets about cat evolution, phys.org  Driscoll, C. A., Menotti-Raymond, M., Rohan, S., et al. (2007). The Near Eastern

Origin of Cat Domestication. Science, 317(5835), 519-523. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17600185/ Hu, Y., Hu, S., Wang, C., et al. (2014). Earliest evidence for commensalism between cats and farmers in China. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(39), 13864-13869.

Early taming of the cat in Cyprus. Science, 304(5668), 259.  Y., & Wang, C. (2020). The origins of the domestic cat in China: a zooarcheological perspective. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 33, 102551. Ottoni, C., Van Neer, W., De Cupere, B., et al. (2017).

The palaeogenetics of cat dispersal in the Ancient World. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 1(7), 0139.  Sean Doherty et al. (March 29, 2025) Redefining the timing and circumstances of cat domestication, their dispersal trajectories, and the extirpation of European wildcats. bioRxiv

Press releases published on Scienzaonline and Scienceonline:
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