2,000-Year-Old Paw Print Proves That Cats Have Always Been Up To No Good

Archaeologists at Gloucester City Museum found this roof tile with cat paw prints on them.

The tile was originally dug up in Gloucester, UK, around 1969, along with about a thousand others. It dates to as far back as AD100. The 20,000-year-old tile is a type called ‘tegula’ and was used for building rooftops. The museum suspects a cat must have walked across the wet tiles while being dried out in the sun.

The city considers this to be a fascinating discovery, since “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,” Councillor Lise Noakes from Gloucester City said.

So cats have been wreaking havoc for thousands of years. Is anyone really surprised?