Archaeologists have discovered what may be the world's oldest pet cats, USA Today reported.

While excavating a Stone Age village in China, archaeologists found the 5,300-year-old "rare and valuable" bones of felines in the early stage of their relationship with humans, the USA Today reported. They believe the new findings are the oldest known evidence that indicates cats benefitted from their association with people, which is the first step on the road to domestication.

"What's really exciting about this study is it's the first evidence that shows us the processes by which cats came to live with humans," Fiona Marshall, researcher at Washington University in St. Louis and an author of the new study, told USA Today .

According to the Associated Press, scientists believe it was the cat's appetite that started it down the path of domestication.

"The grain stored by ancient farmers was a magnet for rodents. And that drew wild cats into villages to hunt the little critters," the AP reported. "Over time, wild cats adapted to village life and became tamer around their human hosts."

That is the leading theory. Marshall told the AP the bones found in the Chinese village backs up the idea that felines took on the pest-control job in ancient times.

At the location, researchers found evidence that rodents were threatening the grain supply in the Stone Age village. Burrows leading to a grain-storage pit and storage vessels that were designed to protect the grain from rodents were found.

Scientists also found chemical signatures in the ancient feline's bones that indicate they had eaten animals that fed on millet, a grain crop known to be harvested by the Chinese villagers. This finding reinforces the theory that the cats were taking on pest-control duties.

"Clearly they were the animals of farmers," Marshall said.

Marshall said it is not clear whether the cats are from a "local wild population" or were already domesticated.

Greger Larson of Durham University in England said the discovery was "an important step forward." He added that few studies have focused on how cats became domesticated, in contrast to dogs, pigs and sheep.