The Bonn-Oberkassel dog remains (Upper Pleistocene and 14223 +- 58 years old) have been reported more than 100 years ago. Recent re-examination revealed the tooth of another older and smaller dog, making this domestic dog burial not only the oldest known, but also the only one with remains of two dogs. This observation brings the total known Magdalenian dogs to nine.
Domestication of dogs during the final Palaeolithic has important implications for understanding pre-Holocene hunter-gatherers. Most proposed hunter-gatherer motivations for domesticating dogs have been utilitarian. However, remains of the Bonn-Oberkassel dogs may offer another view.
The Bonn-Oberkassel dog was a late juvenile when it was buried at approximately age 27–28 weeks, with two adult humans and grave goods. Oral cavity lesions indicate a gravely ill dog that likely suffered a morbillivirus (canine distemper) infection. A dental line of suggestive enamel hypoplasia appears at the 19-week developmental stage. Two additional enamel hypoplasia lines, on the canine only, document further disease episodes at weeks 21 and 23. Pathological changes also include severe periodontal disease that may have been facilitated by immunodeficiency.
Since canine distemper has a three-week disease course with very high mortality, the dog must have been perniciously ill during the three disease bouts and between ages 19 and 23 weeks. Survival without intensive human assistance would have been unlikely. Before and during this period, the dog cannot have held any utilitarian use to humans.
We suggest that at least some Late Pleistocene humans regarded dogs not just materialistically, but may have developed emotional and caring bonds for their dogs, as reflected by the survival of this dog, quite possibly through human care.
blastbeat on February 27th, 2018 at 23:10 UTC »
If you consider the fact that the domestication of dogs likely took place during this same period, around the late Stone Age, this paper actually says a lot more about how quickly that domestication took place than it does about our ability to bond with our canine friends.
The thing to keep in mind here is that behavioral modernity in Homo Sapiens arose much earlier than 14,000 years ago— somewhere around 40,000-50,000 years ago. It should be no surprise then that our ancestors would have the capacity to care for and treat non-human animals.
It’s shocking to me that we continue to view the domestication of dogs as having been primarily utilitarian and human driven rather than it having been a mutually beneficial relationship between two highly emotionally intelligent animals that developed (initially!) organically on both sides.
whisperingsweater on February 27th, 2018 at 22:35 UTC »
In which country were they found?
EndlessEnds on February 27th, 2018 at 21:07 UTC »
From the abstract, the puppy was buried with two humans. The puppy was very ill before it died, and the scientists believe that it would not have survived without human assistance.
They posit, then, that because the puppy would not have been useful for hunting etc. at that age, it suggests that these humans may have had bonds with animals.
Basically this might be the first good boye