LIttle Girl Lost and Her Pet Dog...

An absolutely amazing story out of Siberia.  A three year old girl lost in the wilderness for 11 days survived!  Read how.

Little girl survives 11 days in Siberian forest

All hope is lost when her dog returns home without her; then the dog leads rescuers to the missing 3-year-old, who was called the miracle girl

August 13, 2014 by David Strege

A little girl lost in a remote region of Siberia inhabited by bears and wolves survived 11 days in the subarctic forest by eating wild berries and drinking river water before her dog finally left her side to summon help, leading rescuers to her location.

Karina Chikitova, 3, wandered away from her home in a remote village of the Sakha Republic on July 29, according to The Siberian Times and U.K. MailOnline.

Her mother believed Karina and her dog had followed her father, Rodion, who had left to go to his native village. Because there were no phone connections, it wasn’t until four days later that the family discovered Karina was missing, prompting a massive search.

Sakha is said to be Siberia’s coldest region in winter, but this time of year overnight temperatures were about 42 degrees Fahrenheit, though some parts were colder. Karina hugged her dog and huddled up in the tall grass to stay warm, but that made it difficult for rescuers to spot her from helicopters and drones.

Two days before Karina was found, her dog returned to the girl’s home in the village Omon in the Olyokminsky district.

“That was the moment when our hearts sank, because we thought at least with her dog Karina had chances to survive; night in Yakutia are cold and some areas have already gone into minus temperatures,” Afanasiy Nikolayev, spokesman for the Sakha Republic Rescue Service, told The Siberian Times.

“If she was to hug her puppy, we thought, this would have given her a chance to stay warm during nights and survive [she wore only a tank top and purple stockings]. So when her dog came back we thought ‘that’s it’—even if she was alive, and chances were slim—now she would have definitely have lost all hope. Our hearts truly and deeply sank.”

By that time, the family had lost hope.

Experts said chances of survival for such a long period were minimal. Rescuers confronted a bear during the search, highlighting the danger of the region.

Then, a miracle.

Karina’s dog led the adults to the lost child, or as The Siberian Times called her, the miracle girl. With the dog’s help, rescuers discovered bare-foot tracks in the dirt, which helped lead them to the girl.

“In the morning, almost right after we began searching—we only made 20 meters—we saw Karina sitting in the grass,” Nikolayev said. “We rushed to her, got her a little tea and grabbed her to run back to the car and doctors.

“I carried Karina myself to the car, and she was light as a bird. She was hardly ten kilograms [22 pounds], but amazingly she was fully conscious.”

Karina was said to look surprisingly well. She was given food and drinks, and was taken to the hospital in Yakutsk, though she had no serious injuries, only scratches, particularly on her feet from walking long distances without shoes. Plus, she had several mosquito bites.

 

Wolf Rites of Winter or You Ain't Nothin' But a Hound Dog...

While the findings are intriguing and the proposed explanation for them is compelling, what really struck me about this article was the archaeologists' and other specialists' on this dig willingness to look at information developed in specialties outside their comfort zone -- in this case, linguistics! 

From Archaeology Magazine Online

Archaeologists digging a Bronze Age site on the Russian steppes are using evidence from language and mythology to understand a remarkable discovery

By ERIC A. POWELL

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

 

Around 4,000 years ago, on the steppes north of the Black Sea, a nomadic people began settling down in small communities. Known today as the Timber Grave Culture, these people left behind more than 1,000 sites. One of them is called Krasnosamarskoe, and Hartwick College archaeologist David Anthony had big expectations for it when he started digging there in the late 1990s. Anthony hoped that by excavating the site he might learn why people in this region first began to establish permanent households. But he and his team have since discovered that Krasnosamarskoe has a much different story to tell. They found that the site held the remains of dozens of butchered dogs and wolves—vastly more than at any comparable site.

Nerissa Russell, the project’s archaeozoologist, says, “I remember saying early on in the dig that we were finding a lot of dog bones. But I had no idea how important they would turn out to be.” When the team got to work analyzing all the animal bones in the lab, they identified the remains of about 51 dogs and seven wolves, as well as six canines that could not be classified as either. At other Timber Grave sites, dog and wolf bones never make up more than 3 percent of the total animal bones found. At Krasnosamarskoe, they made up more than 30 percent. “I don’t know of any other site in the world with such a high percentage of dog bones,” says Russell. She and her team found that most of the dogs were unusually long-lived, up to 12 years old in some cases, which meant they were probably not raised for food. “Were they treasured pets, hunting dogs, or pariahs? We don’t know,” she says. “But they are so old that these were dogs that had been around for a while and had some kind of relationship to these people.”

Pieces of dog skull from the site were cut into small, standardized pieces that may have had ritual significance.

To add to the mystery, the bones were cut in unusual, systematic ways that did not resemble ordinary butchering practices. Snouts were divided into three pieces and the remainder of the skulls were broken down into geometrically shaped fragments only an inch long. No one would have made these cuts to simply get meat off the bones. [Might the meticulously cut-up skull bones have been used in some kind of divination ceremonies before being buried?  They rather remind me of ancient knucklebones.]

Anthony and his wife, archaeologist Dorcas Brown, knew it was a unique discovery. Brown, in particular, suspected the canines were probably sacrificed there as part of a ritual and decided to examine the research literature broadly on the subject of rituals involving dogs. What she discovered was that there was indeed a body of work on just such ancient practices. In an unusual move for prehistoric archaeologists, they decided to consult historical linguistics and ancient literary traditions to better understand the archaeological record. [But this was the key to understanding what they had excavated!]

They knew that the people who lived at Krasnosamarskoe almost certainly spoke an Indo-European language. This huge language family today consists of most of the European languages including English, and many spoken in Asia, such as Hindi. All these languages are “daughters” of one language, which was probably spoken on the Eurasian steppes between 4500 and 2500 B.C.. Historical linguists call it Proto-Indo-European (PIE). By comparing words across all the ancient and modern Indo-European languages, they have been able to reconstruct a great deal of the lexicon of this long-dead language. Not only have they reconstructed—and traced across these ancient Indo-European cultures—terms as varied as the words for bee, wheel, and snore, but linguists can also make inferences about these cultures from this vocabulary.

Despite the rich picture of ancient life that can be drawn of ancient life in this way, many archaeologists are hesitant to trust reconstructed PIE word roots and concepts. “This is the kind of information that prehistoric archaeologists would normally kill to have,” says Anthony, “but they generally distance themselves from Indo-European linguistics because they can’t really see how the two sets of data can be combined.” [Duh!] Anthony has spent much of his career trying to convince his colleagues that the efforts of linguists and mythologists shouldn’t be ignored. “I’m interested in combining linguistic and mythological evidence with archaeological evidence,” he says. “These roots contain information about kinship, systems of honor, systems of debt, lordship, and feasting. We ought to be mining this vocabulary to figure out what was going on in their minds.”

So, without consulting these linguistic sources, many archaeologists would have been satisfied simply knowing the dogs were sacrificed. But Brown and Anthony’s passion for bringing linguistic evidence to bear on archaeological discoveries made them go deeper. “I think it’s lucky that we were the ones who excavated the site,” says Anthony.


Brown continued to search the literature on Indo-European ceremonies for information on dogs that might yield clues about what kind of ritual was being practiced at the site. She found that historical linguists and mythologists have long linked dog sacrifice to an important ancient Indo-European tradition, the roving youthful war band.

In the ancient Celtic, Germanic, Greek, and Indo-Iranian traditions, young men often left their families to form warrior societies. “These were young guys on the edge of society who occasionally would steal cows, and you’d rather they were off stealing someone else’s cows,” says Anthony. “So they were expelled from their social groups and told to raid other communities.” In Germanic traditions, these bands of young warriors thought of themselves as wolf packs. A famous myth about the hero Siegfried has him donning a dog skin to go raiding with his nephew, whom he is training to become a warrior. In the Rigveda, an ancient Sanskrit text composed sometime before 1000 B.C., young men can only become warriors after sacrificing a dog at a winter ceremony and wearing its skin for four years, which they burn upon their return to society. [The Rigveda was compiled from extremely old oral tales -- just how far back they go I don't know but they certainly predate circa 1000 BCE]. 

The institution of youthful war bands that go on seasonal raids is so widespread in Indo-European cultures that historical linguists and mythologists concluded that it had to be a long-standing PIE tradition, and that these young men became warriors during a mid-winter ritual that involved dog sacrifice. Linguists even reconstructed the PIE word for these warrior bands: koryos. But, as with many reconstructed PIE words and ideas, physical proof that koryos actually roamed the Eurasian steppes thousands of years ago had been lacking. Anthony and Brown, however, because of the sheer number of dog and wolf bones at the site, strongly suspected Krasnosamarskoe might indeed be a site of one of these midwinter koryos initiations. But they needed to prove that this reconstructed tradition existed 4,000 years ago.

Once they sent the canine teeth from the site to archaeozoologist Anne Pike-Tay, who studies incremental growth bands on teeth to determine what season an animal died in, the final piece of the puzzle fell into place. She was able to determine the season of death for 17 of the canines and found that 16 of them were killed in the wintertime. Cows sacrificed at the site, by contrast, were killed year-round. For Anthony and Brown, this was a powerful piece of evidence that koryos existed hundreds of years before they were first mentioned in the Rigveda.


Just as roving bands of youthful raiders played an important role in later Indo-European societies, Anthony thinks they would have been critical to the Timber Grave people. “It was an organized way of not just controlling potentially dangerous young men,” he says, “but it was a way of expanding and gaining wealth.” Indeed, Anthony thinks koryos could help explain why Indo-European languages spread so successfully. Previous generations of scholars imagined hordes of Indo-Europeans on chariots spreading their languages across Europe and Asia by the point of the sword. But Anthony thinks Indo-European spread instead by way of widespread imitation of Indo-European customs, which included, for example, feasting to establish strong social networks. The koryos could have simply been one more feature of Indo-European life that other people admired and adopted, along with the languages themselves. [Fascinating!]

Since he and Brown have begun following the linguistic trail of the koryos, Anthony has come across other puzzles in both the archaeological record and in texts that could potentially be solved in similar ways. In particular, he thinks a possible association of warrior bands with the number eight might be significant, since it occurs frequently. “In Iron Age Indian texts, boys are eight years old when they first begin training, then at 16 they are initiated into warriorhood,” says Anthony. “In the Siegfried myth,” he continues, “the hero tells his nephew not to call for him unless attacked by more than seven men ... which is eight.” At a 3,000-year-old Bronze Age tomb in Kivik, Sweden, stelae lining the inside of the grave chamber depict eight figures in hoods following a leader.

(© Christophe Boisvieux/Corbis)

Enigmatic stelae dating from about 1300 to 1000 B.C. were found in a tomb near Kivik, Sweden. One (second from left) may depict a long-standing Indo-European rite initiating boys into the warrior class. Along its bottom, eight hooded figures follow a leader. The number eight may have held some special significance to youthful Indo-European war bands.

“That could be a depiction of an initiation ceremony,” says Anthony. At a Celtic settlement in France that dates to about A.D. 100, eight horses and eight men were buried together. Perhaps, posits Anthony, koryos were ideally groups of eight young men, and that fundamental unit of warriors endured into later times.  [The significance of the number 8 -- for one thing, turned on its side, it is the symbol for "infinity"...]

Anthony is now looking ahead to a time when archaeologists will be willing to use linguistic and literary evidence to understand the prehistoric past in much more subtle ways than they do now. He notes, as an example, that koryos is not the only term for warrior band in reconstructed PIE. There is another word that was apparently used to refer to a larger group of warriors that included all the grown men of a community—surely a very different kind of grouping. “These kinds of distinctions,” he says, “are impossible to dig up with a trowel. We have only barely begun to use the information in the Proto-Indo-European vocabulary to understand the people who spoke it.”

Eric A. Powell is online editor at ARCHAEOLOGY.

 

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Want to read some interesting stuff about the number eight?  Check out:

September 8, 2007: 
The Eight:  The Attorney's Tale - as Told by Robespierre (from Katherine Neville's novel "The Eight")

There are several excerpts related to the number eight from Neville's novel.  The one cited above has a map drawing you may find of interest.

I've long been fascinated by the origins of words.  Tonight, for instance, while reading through this article once again and my eyes alighted upon koryos, a word came to mind: cur.  In English a "cur" is a derogatory term for a dog or canine often applied to undesirable types of males.  Out of curiosity (no pun intended, har!), I did a quick search for the origins of the word "cur" and found this at Wikipedia:

In general, modern contexts, the term Cur is a slang term for mongrel dogs with a distinct negative connotations. ...

The derivation of the word "cur" dates from the 13th century. It is thought to be short for the Middle English "curdogge", which derives from the word "curren", meaning "to growl".^[3] According to the Dictionary of True Etymologies the original root of the word may be Germanic, possibly from the Old Norse "kurra" meaning "to grumble".^[4] If so, the word may be onomatopoeic.

Another plausible derivation is the Gaelic word "cu" meaning "hound".

The article goes on to discuss specific American bred dogs who specialized in treeing their prey for their hunter-masters.  Remember an early hit recording by Elvis Presley called "Hound Dog?"  Some of the lyrics: "You ain't nothin' but a hound dog ... you ain't never caught no rabbit... ."  In the context of the origins of the song in the culture of the deep south of the United States, my guess is that this is a not particularly flattering reference to the specially bred "cur" dog who assists a hunter by "treeing" its prey, as opposed to a regular hunter's dog that would chase after and catch a ground-dwelling rabbit. 

I do not believe that the actual origins of the word cur date back only to the 13th century!  That is not nearly old enough.  Take a look at the closely-affiliated words from "sister" Indo-European languages: curdogge, derived from curren (curdogge from Middle English, a language originating from Germanic); and kurra (Germanic, possibly from Old Norse).  Does that ring any bells (Hint: One of the graphics in the article at Archaeology Magazine Online that is not included in this post is of a horned figure who is possibly Odin dancing with a warrior wearing a wolf mask -- how much more Norse can you get?) 

The reconstructed proto-Indo-European word for "dog" is something like *kuon.  We reconstruct this form from attested (actually recorded) forms like Greek kuon, Sanskrit shvan, and German hund by asking what proto-form would yield the attested forms after undergoing the sound changes observed in the various languages, and also taking into account changes in word-formation. The direct descendant of this word in English is hound. But at some point the common Germanic word for "dog" took on a more specialized meaning and was replaced, as the general term, by dog, a word whose origin we do not know.  Source. 

[About the Source: The origins of various words for "hound" from the P-I-E word *kuon are fairly attested and I copied the commentary here for convenience; the rest of the essay, I leave it to others to debate -- and the debate is still raging].  Interesting information about various derivatives for "dog" from the P-I-E word can be found here. 

One's imagination needn't run very far to identify the wolf-masked warrior/marauder, perhaps representative of one known to belong to a cult or group that sacrificed dogs and wolves during the winter -- possibly at a full moon near or around the Winter Solstice -- with the origins of werewolf legends.  Check out this post I did on January 29, 2010: The Wolf Moon.  Unfortunately, I did not cite a source for this particular full moon being called the Wolf Moon.  Bad Jan, bad Jan!  I found this reference tonight:  See the Farmer's Almanac for a North American explanation of where the term "Wolf Moon" came from. Yes, I certainly agree that it can be traced to North American native-American (Indian) tribal traditions, but perhaps they brought those old legends along with them as they cross from the Old World into the New World 14,000 or 15,000 or even more years ago. 

And that horned figure tentatively identified as the god Odin? I think it might actually be a representation of a horned Goddess, because horns were a symbol of goddesshood as well as godhood, a symbol of rulership and authority, at least as far back as Sumeria, and perhaps even older than that.  What about all of those female fertility figures, for instance, carved out of animal's antlers and horns???  Think about the underlying age of the symbolism, and how it may have become inherent in later representations of the Goddess.  I think those "horns" could also be serpents on her headpiece. How many horns have you seen that have heads and eyes and representations of mouths?

The headress worn by the figure could also represent a shamanic figure representing the Goddess. Because, with the exceptions of some switcheroos (as Isis called them), dogs were always companions of the Goddess. Where a dog is, the Goddess is never far away.

The ancient Egptians (of course!) give us Wepawet, a form of wolf/jackal/dog/man hybrid that dates back to pre-dynastic times.  I wrote about Wepawet in this post from December 29, 2009:  Wepawet --  Sacred Opener of the Way.  It just occurred to me tonight that the name of Wepawet may have eventually given us the term for a certain breed of dog -- the Whippet Hound, which bears an uncanny resemblance to some dogs depicted in paintings in early dynastic Egyptian tombs. 

As a final wrap-up for tonight (but by no means the end of this discussion), please check this out, I posted it back on December 27, 2009:  Dogs in Myth and Legend:

... in Barbara Walker's The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets:

Keres
Dog-faced Furies of the Earth Mother Demeter, giving rise to the Latin name of the same Goddess, Ceres. Like most other versions of the Great Goddess's death-hounds, the Keres visited battlefields and ate the dead to carry their souls to glory. They were another aspect of the frightening female psychopomps otherwise called Valkyries, dakins, harpies, Nekhbet-vultures, she-wolves, or sacred bitches.(1)

Notes:
(1) Larousse, 166.

Keres, an ancient Greek word for a DOG-FACED 'FURY' OF THE MOTHER/EARTH GODDESS CERES, whom we somehow ended up naming "cereal" after, and koryos, the reconstructed P-I-E word for those dog-packs of roving young men, who were raiders, marauders and, ultimately, became warriors, quite possibly after sacrificing their faithful canine companions who had travelled with them from boyhood to manhood.  Okay - is it only me?  Am I the only one to see the connections here?  For one thing, that's why I haven't eaten cereal since I was 13 years old and spent a lot of time reading ancient history texts in the local public libraries! 

Because of the unfortunate tendency in certain societies (India, for one, a definite P-I-E derived society) to prefer sons over daughters, it is quite possible that ancient nomadic tribes and later, those who more or less settled into tiny enclaves to begin animal husbandry and farming, found themselves with an excess of -- let's put it bluntly -- horny young men.  Now let me tell you, as we know today all too well, horny young men cause TROUBLE, and lots of it.  When there are not enough young women to go around to hook-up (modern terminology) with all those horny young men, all Hell Breaks Loose!

This is not a new phenomenon by any means, but we are so damn stupid, still, and we are so ignorant of our own long history as human beings, that we refuse to learn the lessons from the past -- and I'm not talking Nazi Germany, although that is a very good example, actually.. . And so we, as a world, just keep dealing with the same old problems over and over and over again.  Holy Hathor, how stupid can we get?  Okay, don't answer that...

Letting my imagination roam about a bit, here is a possible thesis: 

Initiation was  quite possibly over an eight-year period (age 8 to age 16) and the "packs" of boys who were sent off into the wilderness or otherwise banished from the homes and settlements into which they had been born were comprised of eight boys each.  But they were not sent out on their own.  They were under the leadership of a "werewolf" or shaman [some of whom might have been females] who would guide them and teach them the ways of how to survive in the wilderness, teach them discipline, and the concepts of honor, loyalty, brotherhood and, ultimately, manhood. 

What is the average number of wolves who run in a pack?  Don't know - do you? 

What about those carefully cut up pieces of canine skulls found buried at Krasnosamarskoe?  You know, back in the day (the way ancient days), some cultures called their board game pieces "dogs" or otherwise named their games after canines, such as the ancient Egyptian game "Hounds and Jackals."    What is that all about?  Is it so far fetched to see a connection between the ancient times of these "packs" of boys sent off to learn how to become disciplined men and warriors, who sacrificed their dogs (OH GODDESS!), the slicing and dicing up of their doggies' skulls (OH GODDESS!) into bits and pieces, and possibly doing divination with them by tossing them onto a grid drawn into the ground? 

Think about it.

Yet Another Brave Dog Story

Whew!  The Christmas tree is mostly decorated.  The Big Ten Championship is on and YEAH - Wisconsin Badgers are leading 28 - 10 against Nebraska Cornhuskers.

I came across yet another fearless, wonderful dog story -- and wasn't even looking for it!  So, without further ado, here it is:

From The New York Daily News

Fearless dog saves woman from deadly cottonmouth snake – and almost dies from venomous bites
Gudrun Mastriano of Kissimmee, Fla., was walking her daughter’s black lab Dante when the deadly snake lunged and the dog grabbed it in its jaws and suffered near deadly bites, taking months to recover.

By Michael Walsh / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Friday, November 30, 2012, 6:49 PM

Dante the Dog.  Wonder Dog!

Man's best friend doubles as a doggone good bodyguard.

Gudrun Mastriano of Kissimmee, Fla., was walking her daughter’s black lab Dante home when a venomous cottonmouth snake, mere inches away, attacked her.

The protective canine lunged in front of Mastriano, captured the serpent in his mouth and dragged it away. But during the fight, the snake’s fangs sunk into Dante’s snout and legs.

"It could have been me," said Mastriano. "I would have died."

Dante’s snout swelled up to about 17 inches as the deadly venom settled in his body, according to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

"I thought he looked like a little baby hippopotamus," said Mastriano.

Mastriano immediately brought the lethargic and injured dog to an emergency animal clinic, where he was stabilized and treated with antivenin before being transferred to another medical center for rehabilitation.

For the past two months, Dante has received oxygen therapy. Veterinarians delivered concentrated oxygen to Dante’s damaged cells seven times to reduce swelling and speed healing, reported the Orlando Sentinel.

Dante, rejuvenated, was ready to be reunited with his owner, Mastriano’s daughter Charlotte Eierle.

Eierle moved to Madrid, where her husband is stationed with the Navy, in September. Eierle only planned to leave Dante behind for a few weeks while she and her husband got situated, but the snake attack delayed his trip abroad.

"We're just happy to see him healthy and going home for the holidays," said one of the veterinarians who bid Dante farewell at the airport.

For his flight to Spain, Dante was placed in a pet carrier that bore a notification for careful handling, along with a fitting description: “Traveling Hero.”

 

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Damn -- so this brave, wonderful doggy, is travelling to Spain in the baggage compartment of a commercial airline?  Hope he makes it.  What fricking torture for an animal to travel this way!  Dante should be in first class, with a private "turf" area behind a curtain where he can relieve himself, being served steak tartar!

Did a Mourning Dog Refuse to Leave Dead Master's Side?

The position of this dog is very much like a pooch laying down at the feet of his (or her) master, resting but watching.  I've seen photographs of dogs laying at gravesites in exactly this position.

From Past Horizons
11/2012

Cave used to bury the dead contained a mummified dog

A unique find in Mexico of a thousand year old naturally mummified dog, will be subjected to various tests, including X-rays and DNA.

A rare find

The National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) recovered the animal along with 2,500 other artefacts found in Cueva de la Candelaria in 1953 after they had been stored by those who had first excavated the site 60 years previously. It is one of the few examples of mummified dogs in the world, with other similar examples found in Peru and Egypt. Few dog skeletons are found in funerary contexts during the pre-Hispanic period and this mummified example which would have stood about 22cm high is the only one that has been found in Mexico so far.

INAH archaeologist, Alejandro Bautista Valdespino commented that the mummified canine lies on its right side with head and neck bent down, with back left leg flexed and front legs extended. “This finding generates expectations about the potential for new insights into the archaeology of northern Mexico, because it reinforces the idea of placing dogs as companions in the funeral traditions of the nomads of the region. “

Protecting the past

During an initiative to investigate the state of collections, archaeologists found that the organic artefacts had not undergone adequate conservation measures, so they were recovered and placed under the authority of the INAH.

Archaeologist Yuri Leopoldo de la Rosa Gutierrez, of the Coahuila INAH Centre said that the Candelaria cave where the artefacts were discovered was used by groups of hunter-gatherers as a site to deposit their dead.

Over four thousand objects and about 200 human bones had been found inside the cave, dating to the Late Prehistoric period (800-1200 AD) and this would place the age of the mummified dog at around 1,000 years old, although C14 dating will be required to confirm this.

New knowledge of the Laguna region

The mummified dog is related to a type group called “harriers“.

Isaac Aquino Toledo, a DRPMZA researcher, recalled that the 3m deep rock shelter was first investigated in 1953 by INAH specialists; their discovery marked a turning point for the country’s archaeology since they gathered more than four thousand objects, almost all organic and in excellent condition, including textiles, basketry, wood and bone artefacts and the skeletal remains of about 200 individuals.

According to the archaeologists these items will enrich our knowledge about funeral customs that developed among the hunter- gatherers from 800 AD until the arrival of the Spanish in the north in the early seventeenth century.

Preliminarily examination suggests the mummification of the animal was due to natural causes, with the low humidity and constant dry climate prevailing in the cave.

It has even been suggested that the animal died from starvation, because, apparently, no visible injuries can be seen or clues to a cause of death.

Following the completion of conservation work and analysis of recovered objects, some of the artefacts will be displayed first in the Museo Regional de la Laguna.

Source: National Institute of Anthropology and History

A Dog-Gone Discovery...

Dog's Fall Led to Archaeological Discovery

Ancient wine presses found in Jerusalem thanks to a man who walked his dog.

By Gil Ronen

 

First Publish: 10/30/2012, 2:56 PM

Ancient wine presses have been found in Jerusalem – and will soon be part of a new park – thanks to a resident of Ramot who walked his dog several years ago. The dog fell into a hole and had to be rescued. It later turned out that there are more holes in the vicinity, and that a meaningful archaeological discovery had been made.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat recently inaugurated the designated park, which is planned to become an open Biblical tourist park. The park, which will occupy 30,250 square meters, is located north of Jerusalem Park and northwest of Mitzpe Naftoakh nature park,

Among the discoveries at the location are wine presses from the days of the First Temple, as well as pottery shards and two bronze coins from the Second Temple times. Massive digging at the location has been carried out by the authorities with the participation of local residents and school children.

A full reconstruction of the wine presses is planned, under the supervision of renowned archaeologist Amichai Mazar.

 

 

Dog-Tooth Decorated Purse?

Oh please!  Where's the body?  You can't tell a thing about this so-called purse unless you have the body it was buried with!

From National Geographic News

World's Oldest Purse Found—Studded With a Hundred Dog Teeth?

Andrew Curry in Berlin

for National Geographic News

Published June 27, 2012

The world's oldest purse may have been found in Germany—and its owner apparently had a sharp sense of Stone Age style.

Excavators at a site near Leipzig uncovered more than a hundred dog teeth arranged close together in a grave dated to between 2,500 and 2,200 B.C.



Embedded in dirt, dog teeth may have studded an ancient purse, whose textile has disintegrated.

Photograph courtesy Klaus Bentele, LDA Halle

According to archaeologist Susanne Friederich, the teeth were likely decorations for the outer flap of a handbag.

"Over the years the leather or fabric disappeared, and all that's left is the teeth. They're all pointing in the same direction, so it looks a lot like a modern handbag flap," said Friederich, of the Sachsen-Anhalt State Archaeology and Preservation Office.

The dog teeth were found during excavations of the 250-acre (100-hectare) Profen (map) site, which is slated to become an open-pit coal mine in 2015.

So far the project has uncovered evidence of Stone and Bronze Age settlements, including more than 300 graves, hundreds of stone tools, spear points, ceramic vessels, bone buttons, and an amber necklace.

Thousands of finds from later periods—including the grave of a woman buried with a pound (half a kilogram) of gold jewelry around 50 B.C.—have also turned up.

Even among such a rich haul, the purse is something special, according to Friederich, who managed the excavation project. "It's the first time we can show direct evidence of a bag like this."

Fierce Fashion

As rare as the dog-tooth handbag may be, canine teeth are actually fairly common in Stone Age northern and central European burials, Friederich said. (Related: "Buried Dogs Were Divine 'Escorts' for Ancient Americans.")

In fact, the sheer numbers of teeth in graves around the region suggest dogs were as much livestock as pets—the purse flap alone required the teeth of dozens of animals.

In other area Stone Age burials, dog and wolf teeth, as well as mussel shells, have been uncovered in patterns that suggest that corpses were covered with studded blankets, which have long since disintegrated, Friederich said.

More commonly, though, dog teeth are found in hair ornaments and in necklaces, for both women and men.

"It seems to have been very fashionable at the time," said Harald Staueble, senior archaeologist at Germany's Saxon State Archaeology Office.

"Not everyone was buried with such nice things—just the really special graves."

Another Dog Saves Another Baby

I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the story.  I saw it earlier today reported at Yahoo news but tonight I wasn't able to find it there.  I did find a shortened version of the story elsewhere, so here is the shortened version.  I add from the story I remember reading this morning:  The farmer was worried about his dog when he didn't come home at the regular time.  He got together a search party and they searched for the dog for hours and finally found it underneath a bridge - and as you'll see in the story, snuggling up to a newborn male infant wrapped in blankets!  That the farmer was worried about his dog signals to me either that the dog was a very valuable member of the farmer's "family" (in terms of being a good herder, for instance), and/or the dog was well loved. [Added at 9:25 p.m.:  I found the Yahoo linked story here]. 

From Life With Dogs: June 6, 2012

A loyal canine has earned hero status after he was found cradling an abandoned baby that he had spent the night protecting. According to authorities, a two week old child was discovered under a bridge in Winkongo, near Bolgatanga, the Upper East Regional Capital of Ghana, after being forsaken by its mother.

Left alone in a hostile environment, the baby did not have to fend for itself – it was saved by a local farm dog.

Officials say the two were found together many hours after the dog went missing. A search party spent the night combing area fields and forests in pursuit of the wandering canine, but it was not until morning that they made a stunning discovery when they found him under the bridge, near the farm, with a human baby nuzzled against him.

The remarkable tale was reported by Madam Rosemary Azure, Talensi-Nabdam District Director of Health, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency.

According to Madam Azure, the chief of police said the vulnerable youngster had been abandoned by its mother for reasons unknown before being saved by the dog. His umbilical cord was still uncut and had been infected, but the young child was otherwise unscathed after spending the night with the protective canine.

A local health directorate has taken custody of the child until a new home can be found for him.



This is not the first dog to save a human infant.  There are other stories in the not too distant past about a similar thing happening.  I found these reports, for instance, in a search at BBC News:

Page last updated at 06:36 GMT, Saturday, 23 August 2008 07:36 UK

Argentine dog saves abandoned baby

By Daniel Schweimler BBC News, Buenos Aires                    An eight-year-old dog has touched the hearts of Argentines by saving the life of an abandoned baby, placing him safely alongside her own new puppies. The country's media are calling him "the miracle baby". Last Updated: Thursday, 12 May, 2005, 15:10 GMT 16:10 UK Kenya's 'Angel mother' arrested The alleged mother of the Kenyan baby reportedly saved by a dog from a forest has been arrested, police say. The woman was arrested in an upmarket estate near where the two-week-old girl, nicknamed Angel, was found. ... Angel was found among a litter of puppies and her case has touched the hearts of many Kenyans, with offers of help - and adoption - pouring in. 'Saviour' ...  The dog has been named "Mkombozi", a Kiswahili word for saviour, after locals reported seeing the dog walking out of a forest, carrying the baby in a bag. ...

I'm Mad I Tell You, Mad...

I just couldn't help myself:

This is a McCall's pattern I happened to come across while I was looking at McCall's fall offerings.  She's so cute - look at the expression on her face!  You just know she's saying "Doh! Hey Mom, why are you dressing me in this horrid green check?  You know I love pink..."

So, this is what happens when a woman catches Sewing Fever.  Geez!  If my doggies were still alive, I'd probably stitch this up for each of them - but not in this horrid green. 

Seriously, the other day I saw something on a pattern website and now do you think I can find it for the life of me?  Hell no.  It was a particular material that was used to make a blouse that I'm after - not the pattern nor the blouse itself.  It was a dark autumnal colored print with a repeating pattern across the material.  It sort of reminded me of the best most rich Indian paisleys, but it wasn't a paisley print. 

It occurred to me afterward that the material would make a perfect chessboard pattern with no need to patchwork together alternating squares of color (checkerboard effect, tired by true), although it might be a little large.  But as a cloth board that could be sewed on a backing and rolled up, who cares if it's 20 inches square?  Perfect and lightweight.  I've got to find that material again --


Update:  11:34 a.m.  I found the fabric!  It was at the Butterick's pattern store online that I saw it.  Here's a photo of the jacket done up in it:

In looking at it now, it does look rather like a paisley, doesn't it.  Anyway, it would be perfect for what I have in mind.  Can anyone help me identify this fabric by maker and pattern number and where, if possible, I might be able to buy it online??? 

Fox Turns Table on Dog

Love this photo!  " [A] fox was spotted trailing a beagle in a forest near Montreal, Canada. The odd fox behavior was an effort to protect four newborn fox cubs nearby. The photographer noted that the fox outwitted the dog and saved the family. “It was the first time in my life when I saw foxes so brave, who managed to fight back in front of a hunting dog.” (Photo: Mircea Costina / Caters News )"

Evidence of Some of the Earliest Dog Domestication Ever Found

Hmmmm, this seems vaguely familiar, I wonder if I may have reported this from another source some months ago???  From BBC News

August 2011 Last updated at 08:46 ET
Ancient dog skull unearthed in Siberia
By Hamish Pritchard
Science Reporter

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.

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. {Hmmmm, not sure about this...]

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.

Miracle Rescue of Japanese Dog at Sea After Three Weeks

I sure do hope this is not an "April Fools" article.  It made me burst out in tears when I read the headline, and I sobbed as I watched the video and listened to the report. 

Yeah, I know it's silly to cry over one little doggy rescued at sea after three weeks - how could he (or she) have survived so long?  What is it that enables one to read with relative equanamity that upwards of 18,000 people lost their lives (and who knows how long some of them may have survived, hoping against hope to be rescued, before they finally passed away from lack of water and injuries) and hardly shed a tear, and then read a story weeks later about one dog being rescued when he shouldn't even be alive, and all of that grief and horror and anger and sadness comes pouring out in sobbing tears.



The rescuers spent a long time trying to find the doggy from their helicopter, which eventually had to leave because it was running low on fuel.  It was a coast guard ship that eventually recovered the doggy.  May the Goddess bless each and every one of you for going through these measures to save one dog.  I cannot help but contrast this heroic effort to rescue one dog to what happened in New Orleans after Katrina when rescuers callously left behind still living living pets while hauling their away sobbing, frantic owners.

Maybe this Japanese dog is  a symbol of hope.  Now that I'm calmer, I'm thinking perhaps, just perhaps, this doggy is a sign from the Goddess, for the links between dogs and the Goddess go back to the mists of time, that there is always hope.  This is a miracle that defies rational explanation but was sent to us as a sign that there is more going on in this great, mysterious universe than just us silly-ass humans, who sometimes like to think that WE ARE IT and our shit doesn't stink! Psssst - it does stink...

There is rebuilding, and picking up and carrying-on, which the people of Japan have done before.  So, now I feel better, and I hope the survivors in Japan do, too.  Goddess bless you all - and us, everyone.

From the New Scotsman
Dog rescued from sea 3 weeks after tsunami swept away house
Published Date: 02 April 2011
A FAMILY pet, cast upon the ocean wave when the 11 March tsunami scoured the north-east coast of Japan, was finally rescued yesterday off Kesennuma by coastguards, three weeks after disaster struck.
The frightened and hungry animal was spotted pacing around the semi-submerged roof of a house, the only part still above water, then occasionally vanishing inside.

Rescuers used a raft and a rope to coax the dog from the roof - one coastguard plunging into the sea - before netting it to bring it to shore.

An all-out search for survivors and bodies up to 20 miles off the north-east coast is expected to scale down tomorrow.

Funny Doggy Joke - No Kidding!

A temporary break as I'm downloading transferred pictures from my ancient desktop -- I found this in a late 2002 email (still saved, yes, me bad) from Mr. Don:



This is my sweetheart of a doggy,
Miss Tasha.  She was a brown labrador/doberman
mix I adopted in 1991 from the Wisconsin
Humane Society when she was 11 months old.
She passed away in Spring, 2004.

 This guy sees a sign in front of a house: "Talking Dog for Sale." He rings the bell and the owner tells him the dog is in the back yard.

The guy goes into the back yard and sees a mutt sitting there. "You talk?" he asks.

"Yep," the mutt replies.

"So, what's your story?"

The mutt looks up and says "Well, I discovered my gift pretty young and I wanted to help the government, so I told the CIA about my gift, and in no time they had me jetting from country to country, sitting in rooms with spies and world lders, because no one figured a dog would be eavesdropping. I was one their most valuable spies eight years running. I couldn't tell you how many wars I helped prevent.

But, the jetting around really tired me out, and I knew I wasn't getting aany ounger and I wanted to settle down. So I signed up for a job at the airport to do some undercover security work, mostly wandering near
suspicious characters and listening in. I uncovered some incredible dealings there and was awarded a batch of medals. Had a wife, a mess of puppies, and now I'm just retired."

The guy is amazed. He goes back in and asks the owner what he wants for the dog. The owner says "Ten dollars."

The guy says he'll buy him but asks the owner, "This dog is amazing. Why on earth are you selling him and why so cheap?"

The owner replies, "He's such a liar. He didn't do any of that stuff."

Prehistoric Dog Lived, Died Among Humans - Very Interesting Wolf Burial

From Discovery
Remains of the Husky-like dog, buried 7,000 years ago in Siberia, suggest people saw it as a thinking, social being.

By Jennifer Viegas
Mon Feb 28, 2011 10:10 AM ET

Burial remains of a dog that lived over 7,000 years ago in Siberia suggest the male Husky-like animal probably lived and died similar to how humans did at that time and place, eating the same food, sustaining work injuries, and getting a human-like burial.

"Based on how northern indigenous people understand animals in historic times, I think the people burying this particular dog saw it as a thinking, social being, perhaps on par with humans in many ways," said Robert Losey, lead author of a study about the dog burial, which has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology.

"I think the act of treating it as a human upon its death indicates that people knew it had a soul, and that the mortuary rites it received were meant to ensure that this soul was properly cared for," added Losey, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Alberta.

For the study, Losey collaborated with excavation director Vladimir Bazaliiskii and researchers Sandra Garvie-Lok, Mietje Germonpre, Jennifer Leonard, Andrew Allen, Anne Katzenberg, and Mikhail Sablin. Bazaliiskii found the buried dog at the Shamanka cemetery near Lake Baikal, Siberia.

"Just like the humans in the cemetery, the dog was buried with other items, (such as) a long spoon made of antler," Losey said.

The dog was carefully laid to rest lying on his right side in a grave pit that, at other levels, also contained five partial human skeletons.

DNA and stable isotope analysis determined the animal was indeed a dog and that he ate exactly what humans at the site consumed: fish, freshwater seal meat, deer, small mammals, and some plant foods.

The canine's life, as well as that of the people, wasn't easy, though.

"The dog's skeleton, particularly its vertebrate spines, suggests that it was repeatedly used to transport loads," Losey explained. "This could have included carrying gear on its back that was used in daily activities like hunting, fishing, and gathering plant foods and firewood. The dog also could have been used to transport gear for the purposes of relocating settlements on a seasonal basis."

Additional fractures suggest the dog suffered numerous blows during its lifetime, possibly from the feet of red deer during hunting outings. The researchers cannot rule out that humans hit the dog, but its older age at burial, food provisions, and more suggest otherwise.

From the same general time period, the scientists also found a wolf burial at a site called Lokomotiv near the Irkut and Angara rivers in Siberia.

The wolf, which did not consume human-provided foods, appears to have died of old age. Its remains were found wrapped around a human skull. There is no evidence the wolf interacted with the person when alive.

"Perhaps the burial of the wolf with the human head placed between its feet was done to send the spirit or soul of the wolf with this particular human to the afterlife, perhaps as its protector," Losey said.

Susan Crockford, adjunct professor of anthropology at the University of Victoria and author of the book "A Practical Guide to In Situ Dog Remains for the Field Archaeologist" (2009), told Discovery News that she was "surprised to see the description of the wolf/human internment," she added. "That is definitely unusual."

Crockford isn't supporting any particular interpretation of the burials just yet, however, since she said, "There can be many reasons for the ritual treatment of dogs, including ones we might never imagine."

But Mom - I gotta pee!

Love this photo I just found at the Chicago Tribune online:

He ain't going nowhere! (fineladee). What to do? Oscar stuck in Des Plaines. Date Taken: 02/02/2011

Dog(s) Guarded Treasure Hoard

Sacrificed dogs - this kind of story drives me nuts!  But people of different times and different cultures have other sensibilities about dogs as pets and faithful companions.  Suffice to say that on more than one occasion my dogs ate - and I did not.

From thisisleicestershire.com
Loyal dog still guarding coins after 2,000 years
By tim healy
26 January, 2011

The skeleton of one of the dogs guarding the
Hallaton Hoard

Archaeologists have pieced together the remains of a 2,000-year-old guard dog whose spirit is believed to have protected a hoard of treasure.

The skeleton, which is about the same size as that of a retriever or Alsatian, was discovered in a pit at the site of an Iron Age shrine in Hallaton, near Market Harborough.

Experts think the animal was sacrificed and buried to protect the Hallaton Treasure – a collection of more than 5,000 gold and silver coins.

The hoard was discovered a decade ago and is now housed in a gallery at Harborough Museum.

The dog's skeleton, which was pieced together by experts from the University of Leicester's archaeological services, will go on show at the museum for the first time on Saturday.

Vicki Score, the university's project manager, said: "The Hallaton site is surrounded by a boundary ditch.

"The skeleton of the dog was discovered at the entrance to the site, buried in a slot in the ground.

"We believe it was bound and sacrificed and buried to guard the coin offerings. It was in an awkward position, looking at the hoard."

Mrs Score said the archaeologists had pieced together most of the skeleton, which dates back to between AD1 and AD50.

"Unfortunately, the back legs are missing," she said. "They could have been ploughed away."

She said the skeleton was buried on top of the remains of another dog and there was evidence of a third.

Mrs Score added: "It may be it was felt the previous guard dog had lost its power to protect.

"It would have been considered an honour for the dog, which was probably quite old, to be sacrificed in this way." [What - they can't tell the age of the dog from the bones they used to 'reconstruct' it? If they know enough about dog physiology to be able to reconstruct a dog skeleton, shouldn't they be able to hazard a guess as to the age of the dog when it was killed?]

The dog bones will be housed in a case in the entranceway to the Hallaton Treasure Gallery, imitating the location of the dog burial at the shrine.

David Sprason, Leicestershire County Council's cabinet member for adults and communities, said: "It is fitting that the remains of this dog be reunited with the magnificent objects from the Hallaton Treasure and find a new home at the award-winning Harborough Museum.

"The dog's story is yet another intriguing aspect of this nationally-important find and illustrates the special relationship between humans and dogs that has existed for thousands of years." [Yeah, the poor dogs seem to get the short end of that relationship, more often than not!]

Woof, Woof! New Evidence of Earliest Domesticated "American" Dog

In case you haven't guessed during the past three plus years I've been blogging, I am a dog lover.  Dogs hold a special place in my heart as great pets, and also as the companion/harbinger of the Goddess.  As my readers also know (from reading this brilliant blog, ahem, if they didn't know it before), in the Middle East in ancient times some gaming pieces were called "dogs" - and I'm not just talking about Hounds and Jackals. 

Now, some games historians might argue that the pieces were called "dogs" because of a hunting connection or even, possibly, a racing connection (you know the drill - "there were three different types of early 'board' games:  hunting games, race games, and games of skill," blah blah blah. Dogs were used in hunting, and dogs were also raced - although I'm not certain they were necessarily raced in ancient times.

But we all know that the real reason the early game pieces were called dogs was because of the canine's close connection to the Goddess and because the games were often used as oracles/fortune telling/divination devices to make inquiries of the Goddess.  In that role, the "dog" pieces took on the role of the Goddess' harbingers. 

Here is the article, it made me sick to my stomach to think my canine friends were eaten like a - a - COW. Oh, ick! And, of course, there are still cultures today that eat dogs. To keep a proper perspective, however, there are cultures who think of anyone who eats beef as a barbarian. So, there you go. Pick your cultural poison and - chomp, chomp... okay, that was in poor taste. But funny, damn!

Researcher finds oldest known domesticated dog in Americas
January 11, 2011 (PhysOrg.com) -- A University of Maine graduate student has discovered evidence of the oldest identifiable domestic dog in the Americas.

Samuel Belknap III, a graduate research assistant working under the direction of Kristin Sobolik in UMaine’s Department of Anthropology and Climate Change Institute, found a 9,400-year-old skull fragment of a domestic dog during analysis of an intact human paleofecal sample.

The fact that the bone was found in human waste provides the earliest proof that humans in the New World used domesticated dogs as food sources.

“This is an important scientific discovery that can tell us not only a lot about the genetic history of dogs but of the interactions between humans and dogs in the past,” said Belknap. “Not only were they most likely companions as they are today, they served as protection, hunting assistants, and also as a food source.”

Belknap’s discovery will first be documented in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology as well as other scientific journals.

At the time Belknap found the bone, he had not set out to discover anything new about ancient animals, but was instead conducting his thesis research on ancient diet and nutrition of humans during the Holocene Era in the Lower Pecos Region of Texas.

“I didn’t start out looking for the oldest dog in the New World,” Belknap said. “I started out trying to understand human diet in southwest Texas. It so happens that this person who lived 9,400 years ago was eating dog. It just goes to show that sometimes, great scientific discoveries come not when we are looking for specific answers but when we are thorough we are in our examination of the evidence and open to what data it provides.”

He discovered the bone, known as BE-20, during the 2009-2010 academic school year while examining a paleofecal sample recovered in the 1970s from Hinds Cave, a major archeological site in southwest Texas near the Mexico border.

Belknap and fellow UMaine graduate student Robert Ingraham first visually identified the bone as a fragment of the right occipital condyle, the place where the skull articulates with the atlas vertebra of the spine. Ingraham also visually identified the bone at Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, which indicated that the fragment closely matched that of a short-nosed Indian Dog from New Mexico.

**********************************

Okay, I have an immediate problem with this article. Someone ate a dog. But, someone not only ate a dog, he (or she) ate a piece of bone large enough to be readily identifiable as a part of a dog's skull - in fact as part of a dog's right occipital condyle, the place where the skull articulates with the atlas vertebra of the spine, as well? Now this I find hard to believe. The conclusion that a HUMAN ate a dog is based on the fact that the dog bone fragment was found in some petrified human poop recovered (I hesitate to use the word "excavated" in this particular circumstance) from a Texas cave in the 1970's and laying around all these years. Er, well, okay....

How do they know a HUMAN ate a dog, and that the dog's bone wasn't deposited in some other manner on top of the human poop? Just saying. I know people ate and do continue to eat dogs - but I am not convinced that this particular doggy was eaten and its remains pooped out by a HUMAN. Has a DNA study been conducted to attempt to identify the CONTENTS of the petrified poop?  I mean, if the doggy's bone fragment was preserved, surely DNA of the digested content remains was preserved as well?

If that doggy was eaten by a HUMAN, I sure as hell hope that HUMAN suffered agonies and died an excruciating death as the doggy's bone fragment passed through his (or her) intestines and then through the bowel to be pooped out into that cave.

And that's another thing - why would anyone poop inside a cave in which one lived? I mean, people didn't say, oh excuse me, I have to go poop in the cave now and leave the camp site outside. You don't poop in your living room, and I'm pretty sure humans back then didn't do that either. Hmmmm...

Edited on January 21, 2011 to add the following link - for further information.  To summarize, the piece of dog bone found in the petrified of human poop was, according to this article, stained a color that indicates that it was, indeed, ingested by a human and expelled in the, er, usual way (not via vomiting, in other words). 

Old dog, new tricks: Study IDs 9,400-year-old mutt
By CLARKE CANFIELD, Associated Press Clarke Canfield, Associated Press – Wed Jan 19, 8:58 am ET

New World Bones Suggest Wolf/Dog Cross-Breeding

From redorbit.com
Evidence Suggests Ancient Wolf-Dog Crossbreeding
Posted on: Thursday, 16 December 2010, 08:50 CST

Captive Mexican wolf, Smithsonian National Zoological Park, 2007.

Jaw bones discovered in pre-Hispanic ruins are the first evidence that wolves and dogs were intentionally cross-bred by ancient Mexicans, the Associated Press (AP) reported on Thursday.

The remains, which were discovered by archaeologists at a Teotihuacan pyramid burial chamber, are the first physical proof that wolf-dogs were intentionally crossbred "as a symbol of the city's warriors," the AP reported. The bones were found by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) in 2004 and analyzed that the National Autonomous University (UNAM).

"In oral traditions and old chronicles, dog-like animals appear with symbols of power or divinity," INAH spokesman Francisco De Anda told the AP. "But we did not have skeletal evidence ... this is the first time we have proof."

"Several jaw bones were made into a sort of decorative garment found on the warrior's skeleton at the 2,000-year-old site north of Mexico City," the news agency reported. "The wolf-dog apparently served as a symbol of strength and power."

Eight of the bones discovered by the researchers were from wolf-dogs, three were from dogs, and two were said to be a mix of wolf-dog and coyote.

According to the INAH's official website, the organization "investigates, conserves and divulgates the national archaeological, anthropological, historical and paleontological heritage, to strengthen the identity and memory of the society that holds it."

"INAH is an institution with plenty regulating and ruling faculties in regards to protection and conservation of tangible and intangible cultural heritage, at the forefront thanks to the level of excellence of research in anthropology, archaeology, history, restoration, museology and paleontology, as well as in professional training within the sphere of its competence," the groups homepage also says. "Its activities have great social impact since the Institute cooperates with the different levels of government and society in the… the design and execution of strategies for conservation and knowledge of the national heritage and memory."

******************************************************************************

Keep in mind, the dogs that the settlers to North and South America brought with them were already domesticated from wolves, domesticated beginning some 17,000 to 16,000 years ago, in the Old World. 

Ancient Iceland Ship Burial Reconstructed at National Museum

Very interesting - note the presence of the faithful dog and horse.

From Iceland Review Online
02.12.2010 | 17:30

Heathen Buried in Iceland, 1,100 Years Post-Mortem
A burial took place in Reykjanesbaer municipality in southwest Iceland yesterday. The news wouldn’t have had any special significance if not for the fact that the person buried, an ancient heathen, passed away 1,100 years ago and the ceremony took place inside the Viking World museum.

The heathen in question is on loan from the National Museum of Iceland. The skeleton was unearthed from a pagan grave at the farm site Hafurbjarnarstadir in 1868 along with the bones of a dog and a horse, a sword and various other objects, Morgunbladid reports.

The burial ceremony is part of an exhibition at Viking World, which will continue for the next two years.

According to museum director Elisabeth Ward, research has shown that most Icelandic settlers were pagan and that paganism was practiced among the first generations of Icelanders.

“We are reconstructing the pagan grave from Hafurbjarnarstadir,” Ward explained. “The skeletons are placed in a wooden boat, which is a replica of a Viking boat, and sand from Hafurbjarnarstadir has been put inside. Some people believe the man was buried inside a boat but it is not quite clear.”

Ward said chieftains were often buried inside their boats and the size of the boat depended on the material wealth of the deceased. Such burial practices are also known among other pagan cultures. “Maybe it has to do with the person having a means of transport to another world.”

Among objects on display at Viking World is the ship Íslendingur, which is a replica of the Gokstad ship, a Viking ship excavated in Norway. It was found inside a grave containing bones from a human, dog and horse.

The timing of yesterday’s ceremony, December 1, was considered particularly suitable because that is when Ásatrúarfélagid, the pagan society in Iceland, holds a ceremony in honor of the four land wights of Iceland.

The archeological discovery at Hafurbjarnarstadir is among the first in the country. A local farmer found bones in the sand in 1868. He called for a priest who contacted the National Museum, which had just been founded.
They were advised to begin the excavation before the area was damaged and they found bones of a man, dog and horse and one of the most decorated swords from the Viking Era which has ever been found in Iceland. The point of a spear, an ax, a sharpener and various other objects were also uncovered in the excavation.

When the farmer and priest had removed all the objects they found iron nails and noticed that the grave had the shape of a ship. Few of these nails reached the National Museum and therefore doubt has been cast upon the grave having been a boat grave.

However, a few other such graves have been found in Iceland.

What Ancient Egyptian Dogs May Tell Us

From Spiegel Online
11/29/2010
The Pharoahs' Pups
Egyptian Bones Could Help Solve Canine Conundrum

This ancient Egyptian tomb painting was also used in The Spiegel article.

 Scientists are still trying to explain how the gray wolf could evolve into over 400 breeds of dogs, ranging from the pug to the pinscher. One aid in solving this riddle has been found in an unlikely place: a giant animal shrine from ancient Egypt.

At first, he panned for gold in the East Indies. Then he poked around in Stonehenge. And then, during his forays into the Orient, he discovered mankind's oldest legal codes.

Later, in 1897, French adventurer Jacques de Morgan found himself standing in a dark crypt in Egypt, knee-deep in bones that crackled and snapped with every step he took: He had discovered the world's largest dog cemetery.

De Morgan's pioneering discovery was soon forgotten in professional circles. But now, more than a century later, researchers from Cardiff University, in Wales, have turned their attention to the dog mausoleum once again and are conducting excavations at the site. Paul Nicholson, a lecturer in archaeology from the university who is leading the dig, says that thousands of mummified dogs were once placed into niches in the cavern.

Bizarre Animal Cults

Most of the canine corpses date back to the period after 748 B.C., when black pharaohs ruled along the Nile and animal cults took on bizarre forms. Indeed, some 130 cemeteries for bulls, snakes, baboons, fish and mice have already been discovered. And more than 180,000 cats have been found buried in a single mass grave near the village of Istabl Antar.

In Saqqara, a village just south of Cairo, there were two ritual sites for dogs. The one currently being investigated lies directly beneath the Temple of Anubis, the jackal-headed Egyptian god of the underworld. Priests would descend a staircase to the stone-lined cellar, where they would made sacrifices to Anubis with victims taken from a kennel in the temple district.

Private individuals would also come to Saqqara to have their deceased dogs embalmed. And when dog owners died, their beloved pets were often constrained to join them in the afterlife -- by being either strangled or bludgeoned to death. Countless ribs and leg and ankle bones lie in the passages around the cavern.

The Canine Conundrum

Researchers are now trying to determine the breeds, ages and genders of the animals sacrificed at this site. But their efforts aren't aimed at solving any Egyptian riddle, per say, but to helping elucidate the mysterious family tree of the dog.

Famous Austrian zoologist and animal behaviorist Konrad Lorenz was wrong when he posited that dogs descended from the golden jackal. Indeed, scientists now have genetic proof that dogs derive from wolves, fellow members of the canis genus.

Scholars believe that wolves first started to have peaceful interactions with Stone Age humans about 30,000 years ago. A canine jawbone recently discovered in Switzerland and estimated to be 14,000 years old already bears clear signs of domestication: smaller fangs and a shorter snout than the wolf's.

Egyptians as Dog Breeders

In the history of mammalian evolution, no other animal has been as flexible as Canis lupus, the gray wolf. Indeed, it is now credited with being the ancestor of the roughly 400 officially recognized breeds of dogs. Believe it or not, that whimpering asthmatic pug derived from the savage snarling wolf. But the question that researchers face is: How did all of these various breeds develop?

Reliefs, grave paintings and statues indicate that the ancient Egyptians played a major role in this development. The first known depictions of dogs come from rock carvings along the Nile River dating back almost 5,000 years ago. Not long thereafter, the pharaohs were already hunting with slender greyhounds. A leashed dog with black-and-white spots that vaguely resembles a dalmation is painted on a sarcophagus from the 6th dynasty, or roughly 4,000 years back.

Around 1500 B.C., small, bowlegged mutts and lapdogs were already scurrying around the palaces of the pharaohs. Brawny hunting dogs were bred for the battlefield, and mastiffs imported from Assyria were crossed with the domestic breed. A bronze figure from the grave of King Tut strongly resembles a dachshund.

So-called pariah dogs lived near Egyptian settlements eating garbage and periodically retreating into the desert, where they bred and multiplied at random.

Mountains of Bones


The underground cult temple at Saqqara is now revealing the kinds of dogs created in the process of uncontrolled mating as well as how many different breeds the Egyptians already had. The archaeologists are facing a daunting task: They have mountains of brownish bones to sort through, including the ones of jackals, foxes and hyenas found in initial analyses. And they will use CT scanning devices to examine the dogs that were found mummified.

Again and again, the scientists are finding evidence of just how bloody the ceremonies in the Temple of Anubis were: Many of the bones come from mere puppies that met a violent end. [Was this evidence of violence the result of the foreign (Nubian) influence?  I find it difficult to believe that Egyptian priests would have treated sacred sacrifices in such a manner.  I also wonder how they identified these canine bones as sacrifices.  Would not a more logical sacrifice to a "dog" god such as Anubis be MEAT from prey, and not a fellow canine?]

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan