Cat bones tell a story of early settlers and their love for cats

SALT LAKE CITY — Researchers have found the bones of some of the first cats to arrive in the Americas and they believe the cats were brought for more than just their mousing abilities.

Archaeologists were excavating a 16th century Spanish shipwreck off the coast of Florida, where they found the skeletons of two cats. One cat was an adult and the other was a kitten. When researchers analyzed the bones they found one hadn’t just been eating rats and mice, but was likely being fed scraps under the table by a sailor friend.

Utah State University graduate Martin Welker contributed to the study and told reporters with the school that these findings help track when cats would have gotten here and how they spread.

Welker specializes in the history of dogs, but he was able to use his expertise to provide context to the research team based out of the University of Arizona.

Welker says it can be hard to track the story of cats in archaeology since they are so independent. This research shows that although the cats may have been brought for pest control, they could also be considered companions. Sailors in particular liked to have cats aboard ships and considered the felines to be good luck.

The full paper can be found the quarterly journal American Antiquity.

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