2000-Year-Old Cat Paw Prints Discovered on Tile

Paw prints made by a cat 2,000 years ago have been found on a Roman roof tile kept at a museum in south west England.

Dug up in Gloucester in 1969, the tile fragment had long lain unnoticed at Gloucester City Museum.

Only recently, a researcher spotted the cat’s paw on the tile while going through the finds from the 1969 archaeological excavation.

“At that time the archaeologists seem to have been more interested in digging things up than looking at what they found,” David Rice, curator at Gloucester City Museum, told Discovery News.

The cat is thought to have run across the wet clay tile when it was left out to dry in about AD100.

Despite the feline footprints, the Romans fired the tile, a type called tegula, and used it on the roof of a building in what became the Berkeley Street area of modern Gloucester.

It is possible the cat was a Roman army cat, the pet of a Roman soldier who stationed at the site.

The tile is now on display at the Gloucester City Museum and Art Gallery.

“The marks are the only example for Roman domestic cats that visitors can see in the museum,” Rice said.

“I believe there are more cat paw prints found on ancient Roman tiles in Britain than anywhere else in the Roman Empire including Italy. Roman Britons must have had a special liking for cats,” he added.

From Discovery News