They Walked Among Us!

A paw print made by a cat in Roman times has been discovered on a 2,000 year old roof tile in Gloucester.  It was dug up in Berkeley Street in 1969 but the footprint has only just been discovered.  The print was found by an archaeologist at Gloucester City Museum who was examining thousands of fragments of Roman roof tile.  The cat is thought to have snuck across the wet tiles which were drying in the sun in about AD 100.  The tile, a type called tegula, was used on the roof of a building in what became the Berkeley Street area of modern Gloucester, a spokesman said.  Councillor Lise Noakes, from Gloucester City Council, said it was a “fascinating discovery”.  “Dog paw prints, people’s boot prints and even a piglet’s trotter print have all been found on tiles from Roman Gloucester, but cat prints are very rare,” she said.

via Cat paw print discovered on Gloucester Roman roof tile – BBC News.

I found this news both fascinating and delightful!  We know, of course, that domestic cats have been around for many thousands of years.  We have proof in ancient works of art, not to mention cases & cases full of mummified cats from Egypt.  What makes this discovery so enchanting to ailurophiles, I think, is that it proves that cats were part of our daily lives, part of our community, part of our family.  Much like the medieval manuscript that was discovered in 2011 to contain the inky evidence of a feline writer’s assistant, these are the footprints of a friend!