 Since cats were venerated in ancient Egypt , they were commonly believed to have been domesticated there , but there may have been instances of domestication as early as the Neolithic from around 9 @,@ 500 years ago ( 7 @,@ 500 BC ) . A genetic study in 2007 concluded that domestic cats are descended from Near Eastern wildcats , having diverged around 8 @,@ 000 BC in West Asia . A 2016 study found that leopard cats were undergoing domestication independently in China around 5 @,@ 500 BC , though this line of partially domesticated cats leaves no trace in the domesticated populations of today . 
