Humans and Dogs Linked through Millennia
Dog toys: Pleistocene to Holocene dog burials
It turns out that pre-Columbian dogs brought to the Americas by First Peoples haven’t survived genetically intact.
Like Neandertal genes in Homo sapiens, only “pieces” of their DNA remain in modern American dogs, including traces in Carolina dogs and Xoloitzcuintli.
Except that Howard Kie (Nicky Matthews Mystery series) has been taking care of a pack of pure-bred, pre-Columbian dogs on the high mesas of the Fire-Sky Pueblo(!) (Isn’t fiction great?)
In fact, ancient dogs are KEY in the next Nicky Matthews Mystery, Sacred Ghosts.
The dog burial in the photo above is one of dozens found in the Lake Baikal region of eastern Siberia, which range from the late Pleistocene (12,000 B.P. [before present]) through the Holocene, ending about 6,000 B.P.
What makes many of these deliberate burials unique is the presence of “offerings” or maybe even toys, interred along with the dogs. The red arrow points to a smooth, round river rock that was intentionally placed in the dog’s mouth. Maybe a favorite toy this puppy would have fetched for his humans, like Tan Turtle (See Sting of Lies and William Tell).
