Our Early Neolithic Canine Companions
january 2020 | Vol. 8.1
By Lisa Yeomans
The close relationship between humans and dogs has existed for many millennia. Recent work in the Black Desert region of Jordan has highlighted just how important dogs were as hunting companions to Early Neolithic groups well over 10,000 years ago.
The University of Copenhagen has been excavating and surveying Natufian and Early Neolithic sites around the Qa’ Shubayqa since 2012.
Location of Shubayqa 6 and other sites mentioned (Shubayqa 1, Ain Mallaha and Hayonim). Image by Lisa Yeomans.
One of these sites, Shubayqa 6, dated to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) has an archaeological sequence spanning 11,600 to 10,600 years ago, although the site would not have been continuously occupied over this entire timeframe.
Example of the basalt stone semi-circular structures of PPNA date excavated at Shubayqa 6. Photo by Lisa Yeomans.
The site is located in a semi-arid region in northeast Jordan; it is difficult to imagine the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene environment that offered a rich variety of resources for humans to exploit.
Landscape in the vicinity of Shubayqa. Photo by Lisa Yeomans.
What is now a dry playa, only flooded for short windows of time after winter rains, was once a lush wetland attracting migrating waterfowl and supporting varied vegetation perhaps best envisioned by the wetlands at Azraq.
The wetlands at Azraq provide a good analogy to visualize the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene landscape at Shubayqa. Photo by Lisa Yeomans.
The semi-circular stone structures forming the settlement built during the PPNA at Shubayqa 6 were positioned at the edge of this wetland, well placed for access to water and other resources.
The people who lived at Shubayqa 6 hunted a range of wild animals including gazelle and wetland birds in addition to gathering plant resources from the landscape. Imported flint and the ready supply of basalt were manufactured into tools for processing the carcasses of hunted prey and gathered plants. These activities generated large accumulations of waste discarded in midden areas and ideal for archaeologists to study the intricacies of everyday life.
Amongst these remains is evidence that dogs were living side-by-side with people. The bones of the dogs themselves were not common and difficult to differentiate from closely related species such as their ancestor, the wolf.
Examples of the canid bones, probably dogs, from Shubayqa 6. Photo by Lisa Yeomans.
The best evidence for the presence of dogs are bones that have been gnawed, swallowed and passed through the digestive tract of another animal. These processes leave distinctive characteristics visible on the surface of the bones where the digestive system has started to attack and break-down the faunal remains).
Example of the characteristics displayed by bones that had been digested (note the scalloped surface, thinned and sharpened edges and signs of acid widening natural holes in the bone structure). Photo by Lisa Yeomans.
The size of the bones are often too large to have been swallowed by humans. Carnivores, other than dogs, could potentially have been responsible but such wild animals would drag scraps of food away to feed on rather than remaining in the settlement close to humans. Small fragments of bone eaten by carnivores were found very frequently in the middens, even within the structures and scattered amongst the rest of the waste discarded by people at Shubayqa 6. This is a very clear indication that dogs were living in and around the settlement.
The discovery of dogs in the Early Neolithic is not a great surprise. We already know that dogs had been domesticated for some time with evidence from the Southern Levant dating back to the preceding Late Natufian period, perhaps only 1000 years earlier than the evidence for dogs at Shubayqa 6 but feasibly as early as 14,500 years ago based on estimates by researchers studying genetics. The Late Natufian evidence is based on examples of humans buried with their canine companions found at Hayonim and Ain Mallaha indicating a bond between the two species. But we do not know if the dogs at Shubayqa 6 were descendants of these Late Natufian animals from the Mediterranean zone of the Southern Levant or if they represent a new domestication event. Either scenario is entirely possible.
Humans probably benefited from the domestication of dogs in many ways. Dogs could have offered early warning of danger and perhaps a source of comfort. However, their ability to aid humans in hunting quests was certainly a major factor in the development of a close relationship between dogs and humans. If we compare the animals hunted at Shubayqa 6 to those hunted earlier in roughly the same location, at Shubayqa 1 in the preceding Natufian period, we find evidence for an increase in small fast prey such as hares and ground dwelling birds once domestic dogs were present.
One of the main benefits of dogs was probably their prowess in running down small, fast animals. Such skills resulted in humans appreciating their canine compatriots to the extent that dogs were free to roam the settlement, scavenging or perhaps deliberately fed waste. Since the time of this early cooperation between humans and dogs, the two species have had a bond that has not been broken. For many of us today, dogs are essential in our lives for reasons such companionship; this merely represents the evolution of our relationship to canines which started many millennia ago when humans and dogs mutually benefited by forming an alliance as hunting partners.
There is still much work to be done on the faunal assemblage from Shubayqa 6. At this stage the remains of the dogs themselves are quite rare with the exception of an articulated forelimb of one animal found in a midden and a smattering of disarticulated bones from across the site.
An articulated section of a dog forelimb found in a midden area between the stone structures at Shubayqa 6. Photo by Lisa Yeomans.
When the entire faunal assemblage is studied, more details will come to light on the how humans and dogs lived together at a time when people were just beginning to develop their close relationship to canines.
How to cite this article:
Yeomans, L. 2020. “Our Early Neolithic Canine Companions” The Ancient Near East Today 8.1. Accessed at: https://anetoday.org/neolithic-canine-companions/.
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