Archaeologists excavating Mount Zion—just outside Jerusalem's Old City—found evidence of a very comfortable cat. They discovered a piece of a ceramic jug that had imprints of a cat's arm and paw prints indicating the cat was kneading the clay.
"The paw print indicates that the small cat was probably reclined on the curving edge of the jug, likely basking in the sun," says University of North Carolina at Charlotte historian Shimon Gibson.
From Haaretz:
It didn't just walk on the raw jar, which is absolutely a thing a cat would do. If it had just been strolling on the jug – first, cats have retractable claws in their front feet and do not stroll about with their front claws extended. There would not be any claw marks. Second, we wouldn't see the imprint of its foreleg[…]
The freshly made jar was likely placed under the sun to dry and may also have smelled marshy, in a good way.
"We can only imagine that it was purring as it soaked up the Jerusalem sun," Gibson adds.
Previously:
• A struggling restaurant was saved by the power of cats
• Cat heads out on a POV adventure
• This cat plays the keyboard really well
