Cats in the Far East Egypt kept mice away from what?

And when did cat's become domestic?

Cats are thought to have been brought to Europe by Phoenician traders who smuggled them out of Egypt. ... It is well documented that cats were kept on ships to control vermin during the time of the 15th century CE Age of Discovery and, most likely, they served the same purpose for the Phoenicians.

Archaeologists once believed that cats were domesticated in the time of the pharaohs in ancient Egypt, approximately 4,000 years ago, between 2310 B.C. and 1950 B.C. But in 2004, researchers reported a 9,500-year-old joint burial of a cat and a human on the island of Cyprus.