喵星人爲何遍佈全世界？多虧了愛貓的埃及人

The domestic cat has proved to be one of the most successful animals on the planet, managing to capitalise on its close relations with humans to colonise every continent except Antarctica.
據證實，被馴化的貓是全球和人類關係最親密的動物之一，除了南極洲，馴化貓的足跡踏遍世界各地。

Now scientists have discovered that many of today’s Felis silvestris lybica are descended from cats who lived thousands of years ago in Ancient Egypt.
最近科學家發現，今天的非洲野貓大部分是千萬年前古埃及貓的後代。

Using genetic analysis, the researchers established that cats were first domesticated in the Near East about 10,000 years ago, probably by farmers because of feline skills in dealing with mice and other rodents that raid grain stores. A complete cat skeleton dated to 7,500BC was found associated with a human burial site on the island of Cyprus. However, it was not until several thousand years later that cats really began the journey that would take them to every corner of the globe.
研究員通過基因分析明確了貓最早被馴化大約在一萬年前的近東地區，可能是農民因爲貓會抓老鼠和其他侵害糧倉的動物，所以馴養了貓。此前，在塞浦路斯島人的墳墓處曾發現一架與之相關的完整貓骨架，這副骨架可追溯到公元前7,500年。然而，幾千年後，貓纔開始席捲全球。

In Ancient Egypt, cats and humans developed a remarkably close relationship as shown by numerous depictions in art from around 2,000BC.
大約在公元前2,000年，古埃及大量的畫作上曾經展示了貓和人有着親密無間的關係。

And it appears something about these Egyptian cats made them particularly appealing and they started to spread into Europe.
這也表明，這些埃及貓之所以獨特是有原因的，埃及貓正是因爲這個原因得以踏上歐洲大陸。

“The increasing popularity of cats among Mediterranean cultures and particularly their usefulness on ships infested with rodents and other pests presumably triggered their dispersal across the Mediterranean,” the researchers wrote in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.
有研究員在《自然-生態學與進化》（Nature Ecology & Evolution）中提到，“地中海文化中涉獵貓的部分越來越多，貓抓捕老鼠類動物的特性在船上格外有用，這些都可能推動貓在地中海地區的擴散。

“Indeed, depictions of cats in domestic contexts, already frequent during the New Kingdom in Egypt around 1500BC, [such as] ‘cat under the chair’, are found on Greek artefacts from as early as the end of the 6th century BC. 大約公元前1500年，在埃及新國王時期，看到馴化貓的敘述，比如像“椅子下的貓”這樣的說法，已經不是新鮮事了。早在公元前6世紀末，希臘手工藝品中就能看到這樣的敘述。

“The Egyptian cat must have been very popular, as [two different strains] represented more than half of the maternal lineages in Western Anatolia during the 1st millennium AD, and occurred twice as frequently as the local [strain].
“埃及貓以前肯定很受歡迎。1000年，安納托利亞西部出現了兩種貓，多半遺傳自母系，數量是當地貓的兩倍。”

“This suggests that the Egyptian cat had properties that made it attractive to humans, presumably acquired during the tightening of the human-cat relationship that developed during the Middle and New Kingdoms [of Egypt] and became even stronger afterwards.”
“這表明埃及貓具有吸引人類的特性。可能是在埃及中新國王時期，人貓關係增進時產生的，這種特性在那之後逐漸得到強化。”

The researchers said the most pronounced genetic changes that distinguish wild from domestic cats were “apparently linked to behaviour” – something that anyone who has met a Scottish wildcat would readily confirm.
研究員說，區分野貓和被馴化的貓最明顯的基因變化是那些“與行爲有直觀聯繫”的基因，見過蘇格蘭野貓的人就能夠認同這一說法。

“It is tempting to speculate that the success of the Egyptian cat is underlain by changes in its sociability and tameness,” they wrote in the paper.
文章中說：“很難不去推測埃及貓的普及是因爲它在社交和馴化方面發生了變化。”

Domestic cats appeared north of the European Alps “soon after the Roman conquest” but are thought to have been absent from outside the Empire until it started to collapse. Feline expansion then received another boost from sailors.
羅馬入侵後不久，被馴化的貓就出現在了歐洲阿爾卑斯山北部，但是據說，直到羅馬帝國淪亡，被馴化的貓纔開始出現在其他地區。之後貓在水手中受到了廣泛歡迎。

“In medieval times it was compulsory for seafarers to have cats onboard their ships, leading to their dispersal across routes of trade and warfare,” the researchers wrote.
研究員說：“在中世紀，水手的船上必須有貓，貿易和戰事路線將貓帶往了世界各地。”

“This evidence explains, for example, the presence of [a cat with an Egyptian lineage] at the Viking port of Ralswiek, dated between the seventh and 11th century AD.”
“證據表明，在7世紀到11世紀，拉爾斯維克鎮的海盜碼頭（Viking port of Ralswiek）上出現過有埃及血統的貓。”

The same boats also spread black rats and house mice in significant numbers which “probably also encouraged cat dispersal for the control of these new pests”.
搭載着貓的船隻同樣將屋頂鼠和家鼠帶往世界各地，它們數量龐大，卻也“可能推動了貓的擴散，去控制那些有害的東西。”

Summing up their findings, the international team of scientists, led by Belgian paleogeneticist Claudio Ottoni, wrote that “both the Near Eastern and Egyptian populations of Felis silvestris lybica contributed to the gene pool of the domestic cat at different historical times”.
比利時古遺傳學家克勞迪奧·安託尼（Claudio Ottoni）帶領世界各地的科學家對上述結果做了彙總，在結論中寫到：“非洲野貓在近東和埃及的出現改變着不同歷史時期被馴化貓的基因池。”

“While the cat’s worldwide conquest began during the Neolithic period in the Near East, its dispersal gained momentum during the Classical period, when the Egyptian cat successfully spread throughout the Old World,” they said.
科學家說：“儘管貓在世界各地的出現始於新石器時代的近東，但是貓加速擴散卻發生在古典時期，當時埃及貓成功‘佔領’了舊大陸。”