A 1,200-year-old jug with a cat's paw print was found in Jerusalem

Jug with a cat's paw print/Shimon Gibson/Mt Zion Expedition

Archaeologists in Jerusalem discovered a fragment of a 1200-year-old jug with a cat's paw print. Scientists say this is the oldest evidence that cats “knead dough”.

This is reported by Live Science on October 28.

Archaeologists believe that the potter left the jug to dry on the sun before firing it in the kiln. And since the surface was still wet, there remained a paw print of the cat, which also decided to bask in the sun.

We believe that the cat was “kneading” and not just lying on the jug, so that her claws were extended and left deep marks on the clay surface, the researchers report. The animal was probably lying next to the jug.

The remains of the vessel were found at the site of an ancient residential quarter near the top of Mount Zion. Earlier, archaeologists identified another ceramic vessel from the Abbasid period (750–1258 AD), which allowed us to assume the age of this fragment.

A jug with a cat's paw print

This means that the cat lived during the Abbasid Caliphate – dynasty that ruled large territories of the Islamic Empire. During this period, Jerusalem was under the rule of Muslims, but among its inhabitants there were also Jews and Christians.

The remains of cats have already been found on the territory of Israel – animals had a special importance in Islamic culture at the time Abbasids They “are mentioned in early Islamic sources, and the Prophet Muhammad is said to have had a great love for cats.”