History is an exciting teacher. Today the combination of archaeology and technology allows scientists to resolve questions about humans and their dogs. Man’s oldest friendship, the dog, roughly spans the last 10,000 years. So, before the Bronze Age, any written word, and while humans were mostly nomadic, they did keep dogs.
Ancient Graves Excavated
An ancient gravesite in Illinois was uncovered. It included a trio of dogs buried alongside humans. This example is the earliest of individual canine burials. A zooarchaeologist, Angela Perri, presented her findings in April 2018 at the annual meeting for the Society of American Archaeology. The science of zooarchaeology focuses on animal evolution, both physically and genetically, because of domestication. The report of her findings, published in Science News, opened up new questions on man’s relationship with canines.
The deliberate graves for each of the three dogs suggest the owners grieved the loss. This takes the human and canine relationship to a different level. Scientists believe that early Americans did keep domesticated canines for thousands of years. Until these graves, experts struggled to identify the precise association.
The radiocarbon dating of the bones from Illinois shows they are 1,500 years older than initially thought. Thus, these are the oldest canine remains in the United States. The next eldest dog bones come from a Texas site. The Texas remains dated 9,300 years ago. But these bones appeared more of a food source than human companion.
Findings
Speculation on the Illinois dog breed suggests possible inbreeding between wolves and coyotes. This is a result of the analysis of the skeletal remains of the jaws and teeth. As there was no damage to the dog’s bones, scientists suggest they died of natural causes.
It is a mystery as to how the animal’s ancestors arrived in the Americas. Perri speculated that man’s best friend was included as humans migrated from Asia to the northern Great Plains around 11,500 years ago. There are still questions about how the dogs made it to Illinois. Researchers are hopeful for more evidence further north at some point.
Perri detailed in her abstract to the research that, “The appearance of the earliest domesticated dogs in the Midwest around 10,000 years ago presents a conundrum both temporally and spatially.” She added, “If dogs arrived with the first migrating human groups, the earliest dog remains should appear in northern and western North America.”
Scientists hope to dig up additional details on the family relationship between canines and mankind.
Attribution:
ANCIENT PAWS New radiocarbon evidence has identified three dogs excavated in Illinois, including this pooch, as the oldest canines in the Americas. These human companions lived around 10,000 years ago, about 1,500 years earlier than previously thought.
DEL BASTON, CENTER FOR AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY