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This lunar New Year some people are celebrating the year of the cat and others the year of the rabbit. Source: Imagination Station / Adobe Stock

This Lunar Year will be the Year of the Rabbit or the Year of the Cat, Depending Where You Live

Today, January 22, 2023, more than a billion people globally will welcome the Year of the Rabbit – or the Year of Cat, depending on which cultural traditions they follow – as the start of the Lunar...

Early Hominins Competed with Saber-Toothed Cats 2 Million Years Ago

Homo erectus , literally upright man, is an extinct species of archaic human from the Pleistocene, first occurring 2 million years ago, and is widely identified as the first recognizable members of...
Holding Cell Where Roman Gladiators Awaited Death Found in Britain

Holding Cell Where Roman Gladiators Awaited Death Found in Britain

A Roman “carcer” is a holding cell for criminals and Roman gladiators awaiting their moment in the amphitheater, where bloodthirsty crowds eagerly anticipated the spectacle of their deaths. One such...
Bakeneko or Nekomata types of wicked Japanese yokai

Beware of the Cat: Tales of the Wicked Japanese Bakeneko and Nekomata – Part 1

Who knew innocent little Fluffy could be so devious? Cats’ reputations have often swayed from good to evil over the years as they have been both revered and feared around the world. One of the most...
A Visit to the Witch by Edward Frederick Brewtnall

Bubbling Brews and Broomsticks: How Alewives Became the Stereotypical Witch

"Brewing", "herbs," "broomsticks," "woman." When one hears these words together, most often the assumption is that the person in question is a witch. Yet brewing has a very human meaning as well, one...
How Agnes Bowker Gave Birth to a Cat and the Wild Trial

How Agnes Bowker Gave Birth to a Cat and the Wild Trial

On January 17 th , 1569, the simple, unwed house servant Agnes Bowker of Market Harborough, England, was in the throes of giving birth to a secret child. By her side were the midwives Margaret Roose...
Ancient Red Sea Port May Have World’s Oldest Pet Cemetery

Ancient Red Sea Port May Have World’s Oldest Pet Cemetery

Archaeologists unearthed an extensive animal burial ground at the 2,000-year-old port of Berenice on the Red Sea coast of Egypt a decade ago. Now they say that the evidence found in almost 600 animal...
Giant Cat Geoglyph Found Near the Mysterious Nazca Lines

Giant Cat Geoglyph Found Near the Mysterious Nazca Lines

Experts have found a giant new cat geoglyph in Peru near the world-famous Nazca Lines. They identified the huge figure of the feline on a hill that overlooks the pre-Hispanic designs and features...
One of the ancient Egyptian animal mummies (Andrea Izzotti /Adobe Stock) scanned in the study was a cat. (Nature)

Scans Reveal Cruelty Behind Ancient Egyptian Animal Mummies

Ancient Egypt is famous for its mummies of pharaohs, however, the ancient Egyptians mummified animals as well as people. In 2020, new non-invasive technology was used to digitally unwrap three animal...
The wrapped cat mummy and the 3D reconstruction of what is hidden inside. Source: Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes

You Don’t Always Find What You’d Expect in a Cat Mummy

Gone are the days when a mummy had to be unwrapped to discover what’s inside. Improvements in medical technology and the application of that technology to archaeological research has helped...
Some of the animal species that held a special place in ancient folklore: Horse (Pixabay License), dog (Pixabay License), hedgehog (Pixabay License), squirrel (Pixabay License), baboon (Pixabay License), cat (Pixabay License).

8 of the Most Popular Animal Species in the Ancient World

Animals far outnumber us on the planet. And while humans have domesticated some of them for work or food, others have been observed, admired, feared, and revered from afar. For many ancient cultures...
An Asian leopard cat

Farmers in China domesticated Asian Leopard Cats 5,000 Years Ago

Farmers in China may have domesticated Asian leopard cats during the Neolithic era, more than 5,000 years ago. This is a different species than the only living type of domestic cat today, the Felis...
A photo of the sacred cat rug.

Strange Tale of the 2,400-Year-Old Cursed Cat Fur Rug and the Mummified Appendage

A museum in St. Augustine, Florid has a rather unusual artifact – an ancient rug made completely out of cat fur. This rug is sometimes referred to as the ‘Sacred Cat Rug’ and has a claim on the title...
A Mayan zoomorphic ceramic of a chihuahua with a corn cob in its mouth.

Corn Dog Was on the Mayan Menu but Was Very Different to Today’s Handheld Snack

A new study shows that animal domestication was not only a question of food for the ancient Maya. Remains of a variety of species, including small dogs, large cats, and some turkeys, suggest the Maya...
Artist’s rendering of the Beast of Exmoor.

The Beast of Exmoor: Is this Phantom Cat More than Mere Folklore?

Generally, it is a good idea for farmers to keep a keen lookout for possible predators for their livestock. But what should they do if that predator is a huge beast which can supposedly hop over high...
DNA Analysis Suggests Cats Chose to Be Domesticated

DNA Analysis Suggests Cats Chose to Be Domesticated

According to an extensive DNA analysis of cat genes the domestic cat is descended from wild cats that were tamed twice; once in the Near East and then in Egypt. The study suggests that cats lived for...
The statue of King Amenhotep III in the ruins of his temple in Luxor

Archaeologists find Magnificent Statues of Pharaoh Amenhotep III and His Protector, the Lioness Goddess of War

Archaeologists working in Luxor have unearthed a magnificent statue of King Amenhotep III of ancient Egypt and several statues and statue parts of the cat goddess Sekhmet meant to protect him. The...
A Roman Era Pet Cemetery: 86 Cat Burials Discovered in Egypt

A Roman Era Pet Cemetery: 86 Cat Burials Discovered in Egypt

Eighty-six pet cats from the Roman Era were found on the outskirts of the ancient port town of Berenike (Berenice) near the Red Sea in Egypt. The method of burial implies they were not part of a...
The Cat Came Back: A More Than Magical History – Part II

The Cat Came Back: A More Than Magical History – Part II

Cats have been on the human scene for 9,000 years. We came out of the caves, and they were there with us. Ever since, cats have been immortalized in art. They have been painted in fresco, sculpted in...
The Cat Came Back: A More Than Mythical History – Part I

The Cat Came Back: A More Than Mythical History – Part I

Cats have been on the human scene for 9,000 years. We came out of the caves, and they were there with us. Ever since, cats have been immortalized in art. They have been painted in fresco, sculpted in...
Examples of Egyptian animal mummies in the British museum. The experts don’t know if the mummified animal found in Turkey is a cat, other animal, or a hoax.

Mysterious Mummified Predator Baffles Experts

Some people may not be aware, but animals have been mummified throughout history in various places, including Turkey in the Middle Ages. Niğde, Turkey is a site were researchers have recently found...
Cat Keiko (1841) by Utagawa Kuniyoshi.

Beware of Cat: Tales of the Wicked Japanese Bakeneko and Nekomata – Part Two

Read Part I Who knew innocent little Fluffy could be so devious? Cats’ reputations have often swayed from good to evil over the years as they have been both revered and feared around the world. One...
Ancient Egyptian relief carving of a dog.

Ritual and Burial: The Strange and Elaborate Ways Humans Prepared Animals for the Afterlife

The practice of animal burial is one that dates back to prehistoric epochs. Many cultures around the globe have buried animals for various reasons: sentimentality, religious rituals, superstition,...
The wooden coffin of a mummified cat [left] and a CT scan revealing the ancient cat skeleton inside.

70 Million Mummified Animals in Egypt Reveal Dark Secret of Ancient Mummy Industry

In what is described as Egypt’s “dark secret,” a staggering 70 million mummified animals have been found in underground catacombs across Egypt, including cats, birds, rodents, and even crocodiles...

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