Rujana Jeger

Dogs were commonly buried individually upon death but sometimes jointly interred with people. The oldest known example of the latter, from Bonn-Oberkassel in Germany, serves as a window for viewing this phenomenon. The common practice of regarding dogs as much like people underlies these occurrences. Joint dog- human interment took place in many regions over thousands of years. This widespread practice prompts the evaluation of specific examples. Recent information from Bonn-Oberkassel allows for a more comprehensive assessment of what took place there, though the circumstances surrounding the deaths at issue remain elusive. Collectively, this widespread practice illustrates how people not only incorporated dogs into their lives but into their own deaths as well.

The immediate ancestors of modern domestic dogs emerged from wild wolves in latest Pleistocene times. In taking up life with people, they represent a lineage of wolves that escaped the extinction that struck a variety of animals at that time. Unlike wild wolves, animals that became well known apex predators of recent times, wolves that became dogs initially joined hunting-gathering people, many of whom functioned as apex predators. As such, those original dogs were equipped with meaningful behavioral compatibility with people, and some of them surely assisted hunting-gathering peoples with important hunting activities. Initial social compatibility between people and dogs was further refined as the Pleistocene gave way to the Holocene and the new dog population grew and expanded. Where people later developed agricultural economies, however, dogs transitioned with them as apex consumers, a fundamental change in trophic strategy. But in embarking on that new strategy dogs tended to bec...

Dogs were commonly buried individually upon death but sometimes jointly interred with people. The oldest known example of the latter, from Bonn-Oberkassel in Germany, serves as a window for viewing this phenomenon. The common practice of regarding dogs as much like people underlies these occurrences. Joint dog- human interment took place in many regions over thousands of years. This widespread practice prompts the evaluation of specific examples. Recent information from Bonn-Oberkassel allows for a more comprehensive assessment of what took place there, though the circumstances surrounding the deaths at issue remain elusive. Collectively, this widespread practice illustrates how people not only incorporated dogs into their lives but into their own deaths as well.