A much more recent Moche (1500yrs ago) ceramic of a local puma
Posted on 11/30/2010 4:17:10 AM PST by SunkenCiv
Recent finds at the Ventarrón archaeological site have revealed some of the oldest examples of ancient Peruvian domestication of animals.
The Ventarrón site, belonging to one of the oldest civilizations in the Americas, has already given up a number of amazing discoveries. This latest gives us a look at early animal domestication.
Work at the site, under the leadership of Ignacio Alva, son of famous Peruvian archaeologist Walter Alva, has revealed a huge collection of animal bones, mostly felines from the Peruvian Amazon on the other side of the Andes mountains.
With such a large number of bones, the archaeologists enlisted the help of zoologists Victor Vásquez and Teresa Rosales from the Centro de Investigaciones Arqueobiológicas y Paleoecológicas Andinas Arqueobios de Trujillo (Center of Andean Archaeobiological and Paleoecological Investigation of Trujillo).
The combined group of investigators have concluded that the ancient Lambayeque people were breeding felines at the site. The theory as to why is not at all different from the reason other ancient civilizations, such as in ancient Egypt, kept cats -- as a means to control vermin in what was a time of a rapidly expanding and delicate new invention... agriculture.
The zoologists are currently studying four examples of puma-like feline skeletons with the aim of discovering whether these show any signs of difference from the skeletons of wild cats that exist today. This will tell us whether any selective breeding occurred and to what extent.
(Excerpt) Read more at enperublog.com ...
A much more recent Moche (1500yrs ago) ceramic of a local puma
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Aw, apparently there are no living examples of the domesticated pumas. Not that I am at all unhappy with my tiny European/African cats... but it would be pretty cool to be able to have a pet American cat.
I’d settle for a cougar...
};^P>
So what happened to un-domesticate them?
Cats being cats you have to ask just who was domesticating who? I’m sure the cats thought it was really cool that those crazy humans would dedicate an entire civilization to raising bait to attract their favorite food.
A question dangerous to ask, but easy to answer...as this cautionary tale does so, uhh--eloquntly:
Overview: The heirs of Lotus Cat Food resume their uncles' business of making their product out of human corpses while a group of vaguely cat-like aliens coincidentally come to Earth looking for food. Nothing ensues
Where do you think the widespread jaguar god archetype came from?
:’) I have a feline you’re right.
They probably got bored and wandered off.
Somehow I find the idea of domesticated Pumas as mousers rather - ridiculous.
What country is he from and just when did he cross my border?????
The furry one, or the hairy faced one?
????
The guy holding the big rat.
Oh, the hairy faced one. Don’t know a thing about him; not even where that was snapped.
“Work at the site, under the leadership of Ignacio Alva, son of famous Peruvian archaeologist Walter Alva, has revealed a huge collection of animal bones, mostly felines...The combined group of investigators have concluded that the ancient Lambayeque people were breeding felines at the site.”
How do they know there wasn’t an ancient Chinese Restaurant at the site, instead?
It’s probably the original site of LaChoy, making Chinese swing American.
Pretty! There’s something called Geoffrey’s Cat (the local zoo has or had a mating pair) looke like a slightly larger than normal housecat, with the females melanistic.
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