Dog burials

In the course of excavations at the arena of the abandoned Viminacium amphitheatre (Serbia), within the broader area of the late Roman graveyard, a deposit has been discovered of a multiple dog burial that dates back to the 2nd half of the 4th century AD. Archaeozoological
and taphonomic studies of dog remains have revealed that at least 13 partial dog carcasses of both puppies and adult dogs of different phenotypes had been jointly buried, after possible roasting and carcass processing. By corroborating archaeological, archaeozoological, ancient text data, as well as similar instances of dog burials from the Roman world, a number of potential interpretations of the deposit have been arrived at, from ritual sacrifices to chthonic deities, all the way to the functional slaughter, or some kind of combination of the two.

The dog was the first domesticated animal but it remains uncertain when the domestication process began and whether it occurred just once or multiple times across the Northern Hemisphere. To ascertain the value of modern genetic data to elucidate the origins of dog domestication, we analyzed 49,024 autosomal SNPs in 1,375 dogs (representing 35 breeds) and 19 wolves. After combining our data with previously published data, we contrasted the genetic signatures of 121 breeds with a worldwide archeological assessment of the earliest dog remains. Correlating the earliest archeological dogs with the geographic locations of 14 so-called “ancient” breeds (defined by their genetic differentiation) resulted in a counterintuitive pattern. First, none of the ancient breeds derive from regions where the oldest archeological remains have been found. Second, three of the ancient breeds (Basenjis, Dingoes, and New Guinea Singing Dogs) come from regions outside the natural range of Canis lupus (the dog’s wild ancestor) and where dogs were introduced more than 10,000 y after domestication. These results demonstrate that the unifying characteristic among all genetically distinct so-called ancient breeds is a lack of recent admixture with other breeds likely facilitated by geographic and cultural isolation. Furthermore, these genetically distinct ancient breeds only appear so because of their relative isolation, suggesting that studies of modern breeds have yet to shed light on dog origins. We conclude by assessing the limitations of past studies and how next-generation sequencing of modern and ancient individuals may unravel the history of dog domestication.

Ancient Native American use of caves in the Eastern Woodlands occurred throughout the entire span of regional prehistory; however, the ways that these natural features were used varied considerably over time. To date only 25 cave sites containing deposits dated to the Archaic period (ca. 10,000 - 3000 B.P.) are recorded in the state of Tennessee, representing just 0.4 percent of the total known Archaic sites. In 2014 the authors conducted a salvage operation, bucket auger survey, and limited testing at the site of Black Cat Cave (40RD299) in Rutherford County, Tennessee to assess looting damage and assist in the installation of a security gate across the cave entrance. These investigations identified Black Cat Cave as the site of significant mortuary activity during the Middle Archaic (ca. 6460 - 6360 B.P.), and resulted in the recovery of rare Archaic faunal data from a cave setting. Analysis of faunal materials from the site allows us to add important new information to our understanding of ancient Native American landscape use in the Eastern Woodlands during the mid-Holocene.

A 19th-century dog burial uncovered from a historical homelot in Toronto, Canada, provided a unique opportunity to reconstruct the individual's osteobiography. Of particular interest are the dog's very large size and a suite of skeletal pathologies. Recovery of a nearly complete skeleton combined with the use of x-rays and micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) allowed for a discriminating differential diagnoses. Stable isotope analyses were applied to investigate questions of diet. Results reveal an individual who suffered greatly from disease towards the end of his life and hint at its owners attitudes towards dogs. The interdisciplinary approach applied to this case study highlights the potential information obtainable from pet burials. We argue that better analyses and reporting of pet burials will help address research questions targeting broader themes related to human-animal relationships.

The archaeozoological study carried out in Satu Nou-Valea lui Voicu (Oltina, Constanța County) provides new information on the relationship between humans and dogs in the early period of the Iron Age. Thus, numerous bones from several dogs (Canis familiaris) were identified in the feature called "ditch or gully" and in a pit (Pit 41). The authors of the research attributed this context, stratigraphically considered the oldest, to the Babadag culture (10 th-9 th centuries BC). The studied group includes the complete and partial skeletons of 14 individuals (12 identified in the ditch and two in Pit 41), unearthed in the 1991-1992 seasons. Some dogs (at least four individuals) were slaughtered by blows to the skull and / or were eaten (at least five individuals) as evidenced by the disarticulation and defleshing cut marks identified on the bones. Given the special archaeological situation at Satu Nou, the phenomenon of cynophagy must be viewed in a ritual and funerary context. Of the 14 dogs, two are certainly males, two are possibly males and four are possibly females. The animals were predominantly slaughtered at a young age: nine are subadults (between 8 and 18 months) and five are adults. The average withers height of these animals is 50.2 cm (n = 5; limits 46-55.6 cm) after Koudelka and 51 cm (n = 5; limits 47.4-56.8 cm) after Harcourt; the gracility index average is 7.4 (n = 5; limits 6.6-8.3). These figures describe medium-sized and above-average dogs of medium robustness. It is very interesting that nine of these individuals have extremely varied pathologies affecting various anatomical parts, from the skull to the phalanges. Most of these pathologies healed in the individuals' lifetime, but they illustrate that these animals have gone through various accidents or traumas, some of them at relatively young ages. In general, the dog had a wide range of attributes: psychopomp creature, companion of the warrior and hunter, and also guardian of the home, with a therapeutic and purifying role. In our case the dog was sacrificed (sometimes violently), deposed as an offering and sometimes probably ritually consumed. It should not be omitted that in the same ditch from Valea lui Voicu were identified human bones (from 26 individuals), pottery, but also numerous animals remains that could have been part of the funerary banquets that probably took place in this area. The association of all these archaeological, anthropological and archaeozoological materials may suggest the existence of dog sacrifices at the funerals of the deceased (as their companions) and the deposition of a part of the animal near the body, while the rest of the animal was consumed during the funerary ceremony.

This paper focuses on the significance of the finding of skeletal remains of dogs in an archeological excavation, through the case study of the mixed human/dog cemetery, that was excavated in Via Tommaso Gar (TN) in 2009 by the Soprintendenza per I Beni Archeologici di Trento, under the supervision of the officer Cristina Bassi.
The burial area - dated to III century A.C. on the basis of the grave goods -consisted in 23 human burials (7 adults, 4 infans, 12 individuals who died in perinatal age), and 4 dog burials , all adults dog, disposed beside a long wall, not completely excavated. 
In this site there was a clear association between the dog burials and the graves of some individuals died in perinatal age, probably fetuses or stillborn. This fact opens a discussion related to the role of the dogs, whose presence in ritual situations is commonly interpreted as having an archaic expiatory and purifying function, that is well-documented in Mediterranean area.
In particular in this work both archeological, anthropological and archaeozoological analysis contribute to examine - in an interdisciplinary process - the association to animal burials to graves of individuals considered as particular or dangerous in ancient cultures. In the case of the cemetery of Via Tommaso Gar we could appreciate the dog offering as an important grave goods for the little child that venture in the word of spirits, as a companion ad a protector.
But another possible interpretation regards the role of the dogs as guardians, connected to the concept of limes between the world of the livings and the word of the dead; in this case the sacrifice assumes another light, and the dogs acquires the role of champion of livings against the dead, in particular a kind of dead that has not a distinct status as a stillborn (someone who died at birth, and could be conceived as an open door on the afterworld).
In this paper we will debate about this double interpretation at the light of all the crossed interdisciplinary data at our disposal, trying to understand an uncommon ritual that swing between necrophilia and necrophobia.

Species reidentification and burial context analysis
of 34 artifacts made from the cut-and-drilled
mandibles and maxillae of coyotes, wolves, cougars,
and bears recovered from Illinois Hopewellian
mounds over the past century provide new
perspectives on the variety of forms, mortuary
associations, species-specific uses, and symbolic
significance of these artifacts. Fragments
of eight modified canid and felid “predator jaw”
artifacts, including those from five canids (three
probable coyotes and two wolves), a cougar,
and a bobcat, are also documented from four
west-central Illinois Middle Woodland habitation
sites. Correcting the distressingly common
species misidentifications of these artifacts in
the archaeological literature has also led to new
interpretations of the modification and use of 14
black bear maxillae artifacts, many of which are
identified here for the first time, found in Illinois
Hopewellian mortuary contexts.