DNA Study Traces First Domestic Cats in China to the Tang Dynasty via the Silk Road

A new genomic study shows that true domestic cats reached China during the Tang dynasty (618–907 AD), most likely traveling along Eurasian trade routes connected to the Silk Road. Earlier feline remains long assumed to be ancient house cats have now been identified as wild leopard cats that lived alongside early farming communities for millennia.

Researchers extracted and analysed DNA from 22 archaeological felines recovered at 14 sites, spanning roughly 5,400 years (from the Neolithic Yangshao culture to the 20th century). They supplemented this with a broader dataset of 130 modern and ancient Eurasian cat specimens for comparative genomic analysis. The results, published in the journal Cell Genomics, clarify when and how domestic cats—descended from the Near Eastern/African wildcat (Felis silvestris lybica)—arrived in East Asia.

Leopard Cats Dominated Near Settlements for Millennia

DNA indicates that the animals found near early Chinese farming settlements for more than 3,500 years were not domesticated house cats but native leopard cats. These smaller wild felids exploited rodents attracted to human food stores and thrived around settlements from at least 5,400 years ago until about 150 AD, according to the study.

Domestic Cats Arrive in the Medieval Period

The team dated the earliest clearly domestic cat remains in China to between 706 and 883 AD. Specimens from the Tongwan City site in Shaanxi Province carried maternal lineages that trace to the Near Eastern/African wildcat. One medieval individual, dated to around 730 AD and reconstructed from genetic data, likely had short fur and was fully or partially white.

Genetic similarities between the medieval Chinese specimens and contemporary cats from Central Asia (for example, Kazakhstan) support the hypothesis that domestic cats dispersed eastward along Silk Road trade routes, probably transported by merchants and travelers moving goods and animals across Eurasia.

Why it matters: The study provides the first detailed genetic timeline for the introduction and spread of domestic cats in China and highlights how long-distance trade networks reshaped animal distributions as well as human culture.

Overall, the genomic evidence supports a Levantine origin for Chinese domestic cats and a merchant‑mediated dispersal into East Asia during the medieval period.