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Stones Forum >> Ancient Dog News
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Ancient Dog News |
Andy B
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|  Posted 17-10-2011 at 15:26
Palaeolithic dog skulls at the Gravettian Předmostí site, the Czech Republic
Whether or not the wolf was domesticated during the early Upper Palaeolithic remains a controversial issue. We carried out detailed analyses of the skull material from the Gravettian Předmostí site, Czech Republic, to investigate the issue.
“These skulls show clear signs of domestication,” Germonpré said, explaining they are significantly shorter than those of fossil or modern wolves, have shorter snouts, and noticeably wider braincases and palates than wolves possess. She described them as large, with an estimated body weight of just over 77 pounds. The shoulder height was at least 24 inches.
“The shape of their skull resembles that of a Siberian husky, but they were larger and heavier than the modern Husky,” she said.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440311003499
Easier to read version at
http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/10/2011/give-the-dog-a-bone
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Runemage
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| Posted 18-10-2011 at 18:38
I was intrigued about the significance of the comparatively large piece of mammoth bone in the dog's mouth.
Rune
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coldrum
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| Posted 23-10-2011 at 19:24
Remains of Iron Age dog guarding ancient treasure unearthed
Archaeologists have discovered the skeleton of a dog that has lain underground for 2,000 years, protecting a hoard of buried treasure.
The dog''s remains, about the same size as a retriever or Alsatian, were discovered at the site of one of Britain's most important Iron Age excavations.
It is believed that an ancient tribe, the Corieltauvi, who lived in Britain before the Roman conquest, killed and then buried the dog between AD1 and AD50 so its spirit could protect the stockpile, reports the Daily Mail.
The skeleton was found in a pit on the Hallaton Treasure site in Leicestershire, which became Britain''s largest find of Iron Age coins when it was excavated in 2000.
The discovery illustrates the special relationship between humans and dogs that has existed for thousands of years.
The dog's skeleton was painstakingly pieced together by the University of Leicester''s archaeological services, and will go on display at Harborough Museum for the first time this weekend.
It will be on show along with the treasure, made up of five thousand gold and silver coins as well as an ornately-decorated Roman parade helmet.
It will be positioned in a glass case at the entrance of the exhibit so it can continue to stand guard.
http://www.newkerala.com/news/world/fullnews-133734.html
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coldrum
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| Posted 23-10-2011 at 19:53
Ancient dog skull unearthed in Siberia
A very well-preserved 33,000 year old canine skull from a cave in the Siberian Altai mountains shows some of the earliest evidence of dog domestication ever found.
But the specimen raises doubts about early man's loyalty to his new best friend as times got tough.
The findings come from a Russian-led international team of archaeologists.
The skull, from shortly before the peak of the last ice age, is unlike those of modern dogs or wolves.
The study is published in the open access journal Plos One.
Although the snout is similar in size to early, fully domesticated Greenland dogs from 1,000 years ago, its large teeth resemble those of 31,000 year-old wild European wolves.
This indicates a dog in the very early stages of domestication, says evolutionary biologist Dr Susan Crockford, one of the authors on the study.
"The wolves were not deliberately domesticated, the process of making a wolf into a dog was a natural process," explained Dr Crockford of Pacific Identifications, Canada.
But for this to happen required settled early human populations: "At this time, people were hunting animals in large numbers and leaving large piles of bones behind, and that was attracting the wolves," she said.
Samoyed dog The Siberian Samoyed dog seems to have taken up where its predecessor left off
The most curious, least fearful wolves tended to have more juvenile characteristics with shorter, wider snouts and smaller, more crowded teeth, features that, over generations, came to define the domesticated dog.
These early dogs would have been useful to people in cleaning up scraps and fending off other predators such as bears, but after the ice age, over the last 10,000 years, they became key members of the team, believes Oxford University archaeologist Professor Thomas Higham, a co-author on the study.
"When you've got hunting dogs, all of a sudden it's a game changer. Hunters with dogs are much better than sole hunters," he told BBC News.
Intriguingly though, this much older early Siberian dog seems to have hit an evolutionary dead end. While people continued to occupy the Altai through the depths of the last ice age, they seem to have done so without their dogs, perhaps as food became more scarce.
"What the ice age did was to cause people to move around more," said Dr Crockford, halting the process of domestication and setting wolves and people back into competition for perhaps 20,000 years.
Fortunately, the closest modern dog, the Siberian Samoyed bred to herd and guard reindeer, seems to have taken up where its ancient predecessor left off.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14390679
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coldrum
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| Posted 23-10-2011 at 19:55
170,000-year-old skull unearthed in Nice
A fraction of a prehistoric skull, which is believed to be 170,000 years old, has been unearthed in Nice.
Experts say the discovery could reveal important clues to the evolution of humans.
Students Ludovic Dolez and Sébastian Lepvraud were working on the excavation site, Lazaret Caves, on 13th August, when they came across the partial remains of a forehead belonging to a Homo Erectus.
“It belonged to a nomad hunter, less than 25 years old. He may be able to teach us more about the evolution of his successor, the Neanderthal man,” Riviera Times quoted Paleontologist Marie-Antoinette de Lumley, who has been in charge of excavation at Lazaret since 1961, as saying.
The bone was left to dry for a few days where it was discovered, before being removed for a special public announcement attended by Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi.
Archaeologists have been searching this site patiently for 50 years, unveiling more than 20,000 bone fragments from prehistoric animals.http://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/report_170000-year-old-skull-unearthed-in-nice_1580687
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bat400
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|  Posted 26-06-2012 at 05:35
Humanity's Best Friend: How Dogs May Have Helped Humans Beat the Neanderthals
For about 250,000 years, Neanderthals lived and evolved, quite successfully, in the area that is now Europe. Somewhere between 45,000 and 35,000 years ago, early humans came along.
Their population increasing tenfold in the 10,000 years after they arrived; Neanderthals declined and finally died away.
What happened? What went so wrong for the Neanderthals -- and what went so right for us humans?
The cause may have been social as humans developed the ability to cooperate and avail themselves of the evolutionary benefits of social cohesion. It may have been technological, with humans simply developing more advanced tools and hunting weapons that allowed them to snare food while their less-skilled counterparts starved away.
The Cambridge researchers Paul Mellars and Jennifer French have a theory. In a paper in the journal Science, they concluded that "numerical supremacy alone may have been a critical factor" -- with humans simply crowding out the Neanderthals. Now, with an analysis in American Scientist, the anthropologist Pat Shipman is building on their work. After analyzing the Mellars and French paper and comparing it with the extant literature, Shipman has come to an intriguing conclusion: that humans' comparative evolutionary fitness owes itself to the domestication of dogs.
Yep. Man's best friend, Shipman suggests, might also be humanity's best friend. Dogs might have been the technology that allowed early humans to flourish.
Shipman analyzed the results of excavations of fossilized canid bones -- from Europe, during the time when humans and Neanderthals overlapped. Put together, they furnish some compelling evidence that early humans, first of all, engaged in ritualistic dog worship. Canid skeletons found at a 27,000-year-old site in Předmostí, of the Czech Republic, displayed the poses of early ritual burial. Drill marks in canid teeth found at the same site suggest that early humans used those teeth as jewelry -- and Paleolithic people, Shipman notes, rarely made adornments out of animals they simply used for food. There's also the more outlying fact that, like humans, dogs are rarely depicted in cave art -- a suggestion that cave painters might have regarded dogs not as the game animals they tended to depict, but as fellow-travelers.
Shipman speculates that dogs would help humans to identify their prey; but they would also work, the theory goes, as beasts of burden -- playing the same role for early humans as they played for the Blackfeet and Hidatsa of the American West, who bred large, strong dogs specifically for hauling strapped-on packs. (Paleolithic dogs were big to begin with: They had, their skeletons suggest, a body mass of at least 70 pounds and a shoulder height of at least 2 feet -- which would make them, at minimum, the size of a modern-day German Shepherd.) Since transporting animal carcasses is an energy-intensive task, getting dogs to do that work would mean that humans could concentrate their energy on more productive endeavors: hunting, gathering, reproducing.
The possible result, Shipman argues, was a virtuous circle of cooperation -- one in which humans and their canine friends got stronger, together, over time.
Thanks to coldrum for the link, which continues with even more speculation at http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/05/humanitys-best-friend-how-dogs-may-have-helped-humans-beat-the-neanderthals/257145/.
[ This message was edited by: bat400 on 2012-06-26 05:36 ]
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bat400
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| Posted 18-05-2013 at 00:14
Dogs and Humans Evolved Together, Study Suggests
Dogs are more than man's best friend: They may be partners in humans' evolutionary journey, according to a new study.
The study shows that dogs split from gray wolves about 32,000 years ago, and that since then, domestic dogs' brains and digestive organs have evolved in ways very similar to the brains and organs of humans.
The findings suggest a more ancient origin for dog domestication than previously suggested. They also hint that a common environment drove both dog and human evolution for thousands of years.
"As domestication is often associated with large increases in population density and crowded living conditions, these 'unfavorable' environments might be the selective pressure that drove the rewiring of both species," the researchers wrote in their article, published today (May 14) in the journal Nature Communications.
It isn't clear precisely when wolves were tamed and transformed into man's best friend, and the date has been hotly debated. An ancient, doglike skull uncovered in the Siberian Mountains suggested that the first dogs were domesticated around 33,000 years ago from gray wolves. But genetic analysis suggested dogs in China were domesticated only about 16,000 years ago.
In any case, most researchers agree that by about 10,000 years ago, dogs were firmly ensconced in human society.
Some studies show that the wild dogs of South China may have been the first domesticated canines.
To understand this domestication, Guo-dong Wang, a genetics researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and his colleagues analyzed the DNA of four gray wolves, three indigenous Chinese dogs and a German shepherd, a Belgian Malinois and a Tibetan mastiff.
The DNA suggests that the gray wolves split off from the indigenous dogs about 32,000 years ago, the researchers said.
"Chinese indigenous dogs might represent the missing link in dog domestication," the researchers write in the paper.
Since then, dogs' evolution has been gradual, and there were no sharp decreases in the dog population over time, suggesting dogs gradually became domesticated, after many years of scavenging from humans.
The team then compared corresponding genes in dogs and humans. They found both species underwent similar changes in genes responsible for digestion and metabolism, such as genes that code for cholesterol transport. Those changes could be due to a dramatic change in the proportion of animal versus plant-based foods that occurred in both at around the same time, the researchers said.
The team also found co-evolution in several brain processes — for instance, in genes that affect the processing of the brain chemical serotonin. In humans, variations in these genes affect levels of aggression. (This shared genetic trajectory might explain why Fluffy can be helped by antidepressant drugs, the authors hypothesize.)
Thanks to coldrum for the link. For more, see: http://www.livescience.com/31997-dogs-and-humans-evolved-together.html
[ This message was edited by: bat400 on 2013-05-18 00:20 ]
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Andy B
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| Posted 18-05-2013 at 00:52
This one's about a modern dog but I can't think of anywhere better to put it at the moment:
Dog walker finds human bones on Wyndham Hill in Yeovil
HUMAN remains dating back 4,000 years have been found by a dog walker in Yeovil.
A human jawbone and shin bone were recently unearthed in a field on the crest of Wyndham Hill.
Parts of a shin bone thought to date back to the Bronze Age have been sent to the senior historic environment officer at Somerset County Council for further investigation.
It is thought the bones date back to the Bronze Age – which stems back as far as 2,000BC. [Wooh, great journalism there]
A man stumbled across the decayed remains while walking his dog. Bones were found poking out of the sandy soil after a herd of cows had churned up the ground.
South Somerset District Council park ranger Rachel Whaites was alerted to the startling discovery.
She said: “It certainly isn’t an everyday occurrence to discover human bones.
“I knew that they weren’t the bones of a fox or a badger as they were very distinctive. I instantly knew we were dealing with something very important.
“Wyndham Hill is very important to people for walking and as a view point, so I can also understand if it was a special place for our ancestors in the Bronze Age.
“We look forward to finding out more about the remains and the historical importance of the hill.”
Police carried out investigations at the scene after being notified of the findings.
Sergeant Jamie Rees, of Yeovil Police, said: “The location they were found at is not only a potential historical battle site for the English Civil War, but also a potential Bronze Age burial site.
“Having since had the bones examined further it has been concluded that they are fitting to the Bronze Age, and as such there is no further police investigation.
“The findings will now be passed to the senior historic environment officer at Somerset County Council.”
The remains were found shortly after 1.30pm on Tuesday, May 7. Three hours later it was confirmed that the bones were human.
A district council spokesperson urged people to treat the hill “with respect” and avoid digging up the site.
“One metal detectorist was spotted on the hilltop last weekend and their actions could jeopardise future investigations into the site,” a statement said.
Read more: http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk/Dog-walker-finds-human-bones-Wyndham-Hill-Yeovil/story-19003181-detail/story.html
Again with thanks to our supreme newsfinder general Coldrum.
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Andy B
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| Posted 18-05-2013 at 01:00
This one probably needs a PG/12 certificate !
Boys Killed Pets to Become Warriors in Early Russia
At first, archaeologists Dorcas Brown and David Anthony were deeply puzzled. While excavating the Bronze Age site of Krasnosamarkskoe in Russia's Volga region, they unearthed the bones of at least 51 dogs and 7 wolves. All the animals had died during the winter months, judging from the telltale banding pattern on their teeth, and all were subsequently skinned, dismembered, burned, and chopped with an ax.
Moreover, the butcher had worked in a precise, standardized way, chopping the dogs' snouts into three pieces and their skulls into geometrically shaped fragments just an inch or so in size. "It was very strange," says Anthony.
To him and Brown, both of whom teach at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York, the skilled and standardized method of butchering the dogs pointed to some sort of ritual. Pam Crabtree, an archaeozoologist at New York University, who was not a member of the team, agrees. She notes that the butchery pattern was entirely different from those used in prehistoric Europe and other parts of the world for slicing off dog meat to eat.
"The bone was chopped into small bits, and it was not the way you would do it if you were looking at getting the major muscle groups," Crabtree says.
So how to account for the mysterious remains at Krasnosamarskoe? Why did someone apparently sacrifice these animals?
Ancient Rite of Passage
In search of clues, Anthony and Brown combed the mythology, songs, and scriptures in Eurasia's early and closely related Indo-European languages. Many ancient Indo-European speakers associated dogs with death and the underworld. Reading through prayers composed by tribes in India possibly as early as 1400 B.C., the researchers found a description of secret initiation rites for boys destined to become roving warriors.
At the age of eight, the boys were sent to ritualists, who bathed them, shaved their heads, and gave them animal skins to wear. Eight years later, the initiates underwent a midwinter ceremony in which they ritually died and journeyed to the underworld. After this, the boys left their homes and families, painted their bodies black, donned a dog-skin cloak, and joined a band of warriors.
Brown and Anthony think that similar rites may have taken place at Krasnosamarskoe at the onset of the raiding season, which ran from the winter solstice to the summer solstice. And they speculate that part of the ceremony required the boys to kill their own dogs. The dead canines ranged in age from 7 to 12 years, suggesting that they were longtime companions—possibly even hounds raised with the boys from birth.
"That makes a lot of sense," concludes Brown. To take on the mantle of a warrior, an innocent boy had to become a killer.
Recent research conducted by military psychologists, moreover, suggests that the transition from civilian to soldier can be very difficult. In other words, "you have to train people to kill," says Brown.
For the Bronze Age boys at Krasnosamarskoe, this training may have included killing one of their childhood companions—their faithful dog.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130514-dogs-sacrifice-initiation-rite-russia-archaeology-science/
Again many thanks to Coldrum for the news item
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