Prehistoric Dog Lovers Liked Seafood, Jewelry, Spirituality

[Judi Lynn]

Prehistoric Dog Lovers Liked Seafood, Jewelry, Spirituality
May 22, 2013 06:00 AM ET // by Jennifer Viegas

An analysis of ancient dog burials finds that the typical prehistoric dog owner ate a lot of seafood, had spiritual beliefs, and wore jewelry that sometimes wound up on the dog.

The study, published in PLoS ONE, is one of the first to directly test if there was a clear relationship between the practice of dog burial and human behaviors. The answer is yes.

"Dog burials appear to be more common in areas where diets were rich in aquatic foods because these same areas also appear to have had the densest human populations and the most cemeteries," lead author Robert Losey, a University of Alberta anthropologist, told Discovery News.

The discovery negates speculation that dogs back in the day were just work animals brought along on hunting trips.

More:
http://news.discovery.com/animals/pets/prehistoric-dog-lovers-profiled-130521.htm#mkcpgn=rssnws1

[a la izquierda]

1. So dressing up my Chihuahua like a taco...

is not a new phenomenon? Most excellent!

[durbin]

2. But isn't the Chihuahua a more recent breed?

Just curious how many of those dogs would have survived in the wild a few tens of thousands of years ago.

[a la izquierda]

3. It is, but IRC the breed descends from a much older one...

known as the Xoloitzcuintle, or Xolo for short. They're a bit bigger.