New evidence from central Turkey suggests that some of the earliest known domestic dogs, including two puppies buried nearly 16,000 years ago, already held a meaningful place in human communities.
What happened?
Research at two prehistoric sites in central Anatolia has uncovered some of the oldest canines securely identified as domestic dogs, among them puppies dated to about 15,800 years ago, HeritageDaily reported.
The results, published in two recent papers in the journal Nature, focused on Pınarbaşı and Boncuklu in present-day Turkey. At Pınarbaşı, ancient nuclear DNA showed that canid remains from the site were domestic dogs, making them the earliest animals directly confirmed with that technique.
Pınarbaşı was used by mobile hunter-gatherers during the Epipalaeolithic period, roughly 16,000 to 10,000 years ago, and the evidence suggests the dogs were more than scavengers or wild animals passing through, according to HeritageDaily. Some were buried in ways that point to ritual care and emotional importance.
Diet provided another sign of that closeness. Isotope testing showed the dogs ate large amounts of fish, a major part of the human diet at the site, indicating regular sharing long before farming or cities emerged.
Why does it matter?
Together, the studies address a long-standing question in animal history: how dogs spread so widely and became close human companions.
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Researchers identified related early dogs at sites in Germany, Italy, and Switzerland, indicating that domestic dogs were already widespread across Europe and Anatolia by 14,000 years ago. They also compared the Turkish dogs with prehistoric canid remains from Gough's Cave in the United Kingdom and found striking genetic similarities.
Dogs were likely among the first animals with which humans formed lasting partnerships. Understanding when that relationship began can help researchers piece together how people migrated, hunted, settled, and built social lives.
HeritageDaily reported that Boncuklu, which dates to about 9000 BC, captures a later phase, when descendants of earlier hunter-gatherers were living in permanent settlements and had begun cultivating domesticated plants. Even in that changed setting, some dogs were buried directly alongside humans, suggesting the bond remained strong.
What's next?
Researchers from the University of Liverpool, along with teams at Oxford, LMU Munich, and the Natural History Museum, combined excavation evidence with DNA and isotope analysis to identify the dogs and trace their spread across Europe.
At Boncuklu, a separate study used newer genetic methods on large collections of canid remains, allowing researchers to distinguish domestic dogs from wild relatives.
The results also indicate that when farmers from western Anatolia later moved into Europe, they took dogs with them. Those Anatolian dogs then interbred with local European dog populations even more extensively than the human farming groups themselves.
"The archaeology makes clear that these dogs were close companions of humans," Professor Douglas Baird said. "Like humans, they were carefully buried in the rock shelter and appear to have received ritual treatment similar to that given to people."
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