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Cats have lived with humans for thousands of years, and the remains of two household lines found on a nearly 500-year-old Spanish ship are likely to represent the earliest example of the animal in what is now the United States, according to a new study.
“Cats accompanied sailors on the ship, where they relied on hunting rats and rats that were infecting ships,” researchers wrote in a study published in American antiquity last month.
Emanuel Point II, a Spanish Conquistador ship, was destroyed in Florida’s Pensacola Bay in 1559 during a hurricane.
Shipwreck was discovered in 2006, and researchers said the remains of an adult and minor cat were found in waste.
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A cat living on a Turkish ship. (Gas Nogay/Anadolu Agency through Getty Images)
“Cats have received limited archaeological attention because their independence limits the direct penetration of human societies,” scholars said.
The study said that the analysis of two cats and other historical cat residues show that pets were dramatically in size from normal homes to much smaller.
Researchers wrote that, based on a chemical analysis of waste, the adult cat does not appear to have relied on rats for food and largely ate a fish diet and maybe housewife.
“These pests were inadvertently introduced to the new world, and cats would have followed, firing local and invasive pests,” the study told rats.
Cats have long escorted sailors to the ship. (Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Inside the SH.BA, early cat remains were also found in colonial settlements in St. Augustine, Florida, and the British colony of Jamestown in Virginia and were probably on the Mayflower board.
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Cats are not native to the US and are believed to have originated in the Middle East before they were brought to America by Europeans. They were probably introduced to Europe to control pests, scientists said.
Researchers said they were not sure if cats at Emanuel Point II were brought on board, but study co -author John Bratten, an anthropologist at the University of Western Florida, told Live Science that cats apparently eaten a diet similar to sailors, which were fed or because they had no mice or out of behavior.
Cats were first brought to America by Europeans. (Getty Images)
“It was interesting to think about the idea that the cat was a domestic animal or what cared for the Spanish sailors,” Bratten Live Science told Bratten.
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The study said: “That cats were on board (Emanuel Point II) suggest that their main role may have been as redefinitions and commercial mousers that controlled the rodent population on board. This does not prevent these cats being liked and carried well by sailors.”
Cats were also considered lucky by sailors, the researchers added.
Today, one in three American families has a pet cat.
