Dog history is really the history of the partnership between dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) and humans. That partnership is based on human needs for help with herding and hunting, an early alarm system, and a source of food in addition to the companionship many of us today know and love. Dogs get companionship, protection and shelter, and a reliable food source out of the deal. But when this partnership first occurred is at the moment under some controversy.
Dog history has been studied recently using mitochondrial DNA, which suggests that wolves and dogs split into different species around 100,000 years ago; but whether humans had anything to do with that, no one really knows. Recent mtDNA analysis (Boyko et al.), suggests that the origin and location of dog domestication, long thought to be in east Asia, is in some doubt.
Dog History and Archaeological Data
The oldest dog skull discovered to date is from Goyet Cave, Belgium. The Goyet cave collections (the site was excavated in the mid-19th century) were examined recently (Germonpré and colleagues, cited below) and a fossil canid skull was discovered among them. Although there is some confusion as to which level the skull came from, it has been direct-dated by AMS at 31,700 BP. The skull most closely represents prehistoric dogs, rather than wolves. The study examining the Goyet cave also identified what appears to be prehistoric dogs at Chauvet Cave (~26,000 bp) and Mezhirich in the Ukraine (ca 15,000 years BP), among others.
However, I am told that what the Goyet Cave skull represents is not a "domesticated dog" but rather a wolf in transition to a dog, and that the physical changes seen in the skulls (consisting primarily of the shortening of the snout) may have been driven by changes in diet, rather than specific selection of traits by humans. That transition in diet could well have been partly due to the beginnings of a relationship between humans and dogs, although the relationship might have been as tenuous as animals following human hunters to scavenge, rather like the behavior that is believed to have existed between humans and cats. You could argue that cats never have been domesticated, they just take advantage of the mice we attract.
Evidence of a "Real" Domestication Partnership
A burial site in Germany called Bonn-Oberkassel has joint human and dog interments dated to 14,000 years ago. The earliest domesticated dog found in China is at the early Neolithic (7000-5800 BC) Jiahu site in Henan Province. European Mesolithic sites like Skateholm (5250-3700 BC) in Sweden have dog burials, proving the value of the furry beasts to hunter-gatherer settlements. Danger Cave in Utah is the earliest case of dog burial in the Americas, at about 11,000 years ago.
Dog History: When Were Dogs Domesticated?
It seems clear that dog domestication was a long process, which started far longer ago than was believed even as recently as 2008. Based on evidence from Goyet and Chauvet caves in Europe, the dog domestication process probably began as long ago as 30,000 years, although the oldest evidence for a broader relationship, a working relationship, is the the Bonn-Oberkassel site, 14,000 years ago. The story of dog domestication is still in transition itself.
Brief Bibliography
Thanks to researchers Bonnie Shirley and Jeremiah Degenhardt for fruitful discussions about dogs and dog history.
This article is part of the About.com Guide to the History of Animal Domestication.
Boyko, Adam R., et al. 2009 Complex population structure in African village dogs and its implications for inferring dog domestication history. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Early Edition)(in press).
Bozell, John R. 1988 Changes in the role of the dog in Proto-historic Pawnee culture. Plains Anthropologist 33(119):95-111.
Haag, William G. 1948 Dog Remains in Archeological Sites. Plains Anthropologist 1(3):27-28.
Germonpré, Mietje, et al. 2009 Fossil dogs and wolves from Palaeolithic sites in Belgium, the Ukraine and Russia: osteometry, ancient DNA and stable isotopes. Journal of Archaeological Science 36(2):473-490.
Henderson, Norman 1994 Replicating dog travois travel on the northern plains. Plains Anthropologist 39(148):145-159.
Morey, Darcy F. 2006 Burying key evidence: the social bond between dogs and people. Journal of Archaeological Science 33 158-175.
Pluskowski, A. 2006 Where are the Wolves? Investigating the Scarcity of European Grey Wolf (Canis lupus lupus) Remains in Medieval Archaeological Contexts and its Implications. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 16:279–295.
Snyder, Lynn M. 1991 Barking mutton: Ethnohistoric, ethnographic, archaeological, and nutritional evidence pertaining to the dog as a native American food resource on the Plains. In Beamers, Bobwhites, and Blue-Points: Tributes to the Career of Paul W. Parmalee. James R. Purdue, Walter E. Klippel, and Bonnie W. Styles, eds. Pp. 359-378. Springfield: Illinois State Museum Scientific Papers Vol. 23.
Wapnish, Paula and Brian Hesse. 1993. Pampered pooches or plain pariahs? The Ashkelon dog burials. Biblical Archaeologist 56(2):55-80.
White, Christine D., Mary E. D. Pohl, Henry P. Schwarcz, and Fred J. Longstaffe 2005 Isotopic Evidence for Maya Patterns of Deer and Dog Use at Preclassic Colha. Journal of Archaeological Science 28(1):89-107.
Vila, Carles et al. 1997. Multiple and ancient origins of the domestic dog. Science 276(5319):1687-9.
This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology. Any mistakes are the responsibility of Kris Hirst.
