Multiple domestic cat skulls unearthed from the Xitucheng archaeological site in China. Yu Han

The origins of domestic cats — centuries before they conquered the world’s sofas and internet memes — have long been murky. Now, ancient DNA is helping to fill in the blanks, and the findings shake up the traditional story.

Archaeologists had thought that cats and humans began living with one another around 9,500 years ago in the Levant , which today includes parts of the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean, at the beginning of the Neolithic era when humans started growing crops.

Stores of grain attracted rodents, which in turn enticed wildcats, and humans found it useful to keep those mouse catchers around, leading to the cats’ eventual domestication. The oldest known cat remains in the

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