Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-21T13:42:59.847Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - Origins of the dog: The archaeological evidence

from PART I - ORIGINS AND EVOLUTION

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 December 2016

By
Juliet Clutton-Brock
Edited by
James Serpell
James Serpell
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
Get access

Summary

Introduction

After more than a century of argument and discussion, it is now generally agreed that the single progenitor of all domestic dogs, ancient and modern, was the grey wolf, Canis lupus, but when and where domestication first took place is still much argued about. Was the wolf domesticated in one part of the world or in many regions over its huge range covering the Northern Hemisphere, and what exactly constitutes a domestic dog? The word “domestic” means simply “of the home,” so any tamed animal may be said to be domestic, but if the term is to be used as a scientific descriptive it must have a biological definition, and there must be a clear separation between a wild species and its domestic derivative. A domestic dog is not a tamed wolf but is it a separate species?

To paraphrase the most frequently used definition (see e.g. Lawrence, 1995, p. 551): a species is a population of animals that breeds freely and produces fertile offspring. If the hybrid offspring are infertile then the parents are separate species, for example the horse and the donkey. However, many animals that are normally considered to be separate species will interbreed with fertile offspring, as will all the wild species of the genus Canis, these being the wolf, coyote, and the several species of jackal. A more useful definition is the biological species concept which states that, “species are groups of interbreeding natural populations that are reproductively isolated from other such groups” (Mayr, 1966, p. 19). Using this definition, all fully domesticated animals can be classified as separate species from their wild progenitors, from which they are reproductively isolated. The dog is no longer a tamed wolf but, as a result of selective breeding under human control, it has evolved into a new species, named by Linnaeus, Canis familiaris, which by further reproductive isolation and under the influence of both natural and artificial selection produces new breeds (Clutton-Brock, 2012).

Precursors of the dog

With the increasing care and advanced technology used in the excavation of archaeological sites during the second half of the twentieth century, the bones of wolves have been found in association with those of early hominins from as early as the Middle Pleistocene period.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Domestic Dog
Its Evolution, Behavior and Interactions with People
 , pp. 7 - 21
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2016

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, G. M. (1920). Dogs of American Aborigines, Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, 63: 431–517.Google Scholar
Bate, D. M. A. (1937). Palaeontology: the fossil fauna of the Wady-el Mughara Caves. Vol. 1, Part II, In The Stone Age of Mount Carmel, eds. Garrod, D. A. E. & Bate, D. M. A.. Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 139–237.Google Scholar
Budiansky, S. (1992). The Covenant of the Wild: Why Animals Chose Domestication. New York: William Morrow.Google Scholar
Bulmer, S. (2001). Lapita dogs and singing dogs and the history of the dog in New Guinea. In The Archaeology of Lapita Dispersal in Oceania: Papers from the Fourth Lapita Conference, Canberra, eds. Clark, G. R., Anderson, A. J. & Vunidilo, T.. Canberra: Pandanus Books, pp. 183–201.Google Scholar
Clutton-Brock, J. (1962). Near Eastern canids and the affinities of the Natufian dogs. Zeitschrift für Tierzüchtung und Züchtungsbiologie, 76: 326–33.Google Scholar
Clutton-Brock, J. (1969). Carnivore remains from the excavations of the Jericho Tell. In The Domestication and Exploitation of Plants and Animals, eds. Ucko, P. J. & Dimbleby, G.W.. London: Duckworth, pp. 337–45.Google Scholar
Clutton-Brock, J. (1988). The carnivore remains excavated at Fell's Cave in 1970. In Travels and Archaeology in South Chile by Junius B. Bird, ed. Hyslop, J.. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, pp. 188–95.Google Scholar
Clutton-Brock, J. (1993). The spread of domestic animals in Africa. In The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals and Towns, eds. Shaw, T., Sinclair, P., Andah, B. & Okpoko, A.. London: Routledge, pp. 61–70.Google Scholar
Clutton-Brock, J. (1999). A Natural History of Domesticated Mammals, edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press/The Natural History Museum.Google Scholar
Clutton-Brock, J. (2012). Animals as Domesticates: A World View Through History. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press.Google Scholar
Clutton-Brock, J. & Hammond, N. (1994). Hot dogs: comestible canids in Preclassic Maya culture at Cuello, Belize. Journal of Archaeological Science, 21: 819–826.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clutton-Brock, J., Kitchener, A. C. & Lynch, J. M. (1994). Changes in the skull morphology of the Arctic wolf, Canis lupus arctos, during the twentieth century. Journal of Zoology, London, 233: 19–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clutton-Brock, J. & Noe-Nygaard, N. (1990). New osteological and C-isotope evidence on Mesolithic dogs: companions to hunters and fishers at Star Carr, Seamer Carr and Kongemose. Journal of Archaeological Science, 17: 643–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crockford, S. J. (2006). Rhythms of Life: Thyroid Hormone and the Origin of Species. Victoria, B.C.: Trafford.Google Scholar
Crockford, S. J. & Kuzmin, Y. V. (2012). Comments on Germonpré, et al., Journal of Archaeological Science 36,
2009 “Fossil dogs and wolves from Palaeolithic sites in Belgium, the Ukraine and Russia: osteometry, ancient DNA and stable isotopes”, and Germonpré, , Lázkičková-Galetová, , and Sablin, , Journal of Archaeological Science 39,Google Scholar
2012 “Palaeolithic dog skulls at the Gravettian Předmostí site, the Czech Republic”. Journal of Archaeological Science, 39: 2797–801.
Davis, S. J. M. & Valla, F. R. (1978). Evidence for domestication of the dog 12,000 years ago in the Natufian of Israel. Nature, 276 (5688): 608–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dayan, T. (1994). Early domesticated dogs of the Near East. Journal of Archaeological Science, 21: 633–640.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Degerbøl, M. (1961). On a find of a Preboreal domestic dog (Canis familiaris L.) from Star Carr, Yorkshire, with remarks on other Mesolithic dogs. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 27: 35–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Lumley, H. (1969). Une Cabane de chasseuse acheuleenes dans la Grotte du Lazaret à Nice. Archeologia, 28: 26–33.Google Scholar
Federoff, N. E. (1996). Malocclusion in the jaws of captive bred Arctic Wolves. Canis lupus arctos. Canadian Field-Naturalist, 110: 683–687.Google Scholar
Fraser, F. C. & King, J. (1954). Faunal remains. In Excavations at Star Carr an Early Mesolithic Site at Seamer near Scarborough, Yorkshire, ed. Clark, J. G. D.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 70–95.Google Scholar
Gallant, J. (2002). The Story of the African Dog. Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press.Google Scholar
Garcia, M. A. (2005). Ichnologie generale de la grotte Chauvet. Bulletin de la Societé Prehistorique Française, 102: 103–108.Google Scholar
Germonpré, M., Láznicková-Galetová, M., Mikhail, V. & Sablin, M. V. (2012). Palaeolithic dog skulls at the Gravettian Predmostí site, the Czech Republic. Journal of Archaeological Science, 39: 184–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Germonpré, M., Sablin, M. V., Stevens, R. E. et al. (2009). Fossil dogs and wolves from Palaeolithic sites in Belgium, the Ukraine and Russia: osteometry, ancient DNA and stable isotopes. Journal of Archaeological Science, 36: 473–490.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ginsberg, J. R. & Macdonald, D. W. (1990). Foxes, Wolves, Jackals, and Dogs: an Action Plan for the Conservation of Canids. Gland, Switzerland: International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.Google Scholar
Hammond, J. (1940). Farm Animals. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
Harrison, D. L. (1973). Some comparative features of the skulls of wolves (Canis lupus Linn.) and pariah dogs (Canis familiaris Linn.) from the Arabian Peninsula and neighbouring lands. Bonner Zoologische Beiträge, 24: 185–91.Google Scholar
Hemmer, H. (1990). Domestication: the Decline of Environmental Appreciation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Koster, J. M. (2008). Hunting with dogs in Nicaragua: An optimal foraging approach. Current Anthropology, 49: 935–944.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larson, G., Karlsson, E. K., Perria, A. et al. (2012). Rethinking dog domestication by integrating genetics, archeology, and biogeography. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, http://doi/10.1073/pnas.1203005109 CrossRef
Lawrence, B. & Reed, C. A. (1983). The dogs of Jarmo. In Prehistoric Archaeology along the Zagros Flank, eds. Braidwood, L. S., Braidwood, R. J., Howe, B., Reed, C. A. & Watson, P. J.. Chicago, IL: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, pp. 485–94.Google Scholar
Lawrence, E. Ed. (1995). Henderson's Dictionary of Biological Terms, edition. London: Longman Group.Google Scholar
Lee, R. B. (1979). The! Kung San: Men, Women, and Work in a Foraging Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Leonard, J. A., Wayne, R. K., Wheeler, J. et al. (2002). Ancient DNA evidence for Old World origin of New World dogs, Science, 298: 1613–16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ludwig, A., Pruvost, M., Reissmann, M. et al. (2009). Coat color variation at the beginning of horse domestication. Science, 324: 485.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maher, L. A., Stock, J. T., Finney, S. et al. (2011). A unique human-fox burial from a pre-Natufian cemetery in the Levant (Jordan). PLoS ONE, 6: e15815.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayr, E. (1966). Animal Species and Evolution. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.Google Scholar
Meggitt, M. J. (1965). The association between Australian Aborigines and dingoes. In Man, Culture, and Animals: the Role of Animals in Human Ecological Adjustments, eds. Leeds, A. & Vayda, A. P.. Washington, DC: American Association for the Advancement of Science, No. 78, pp. 7–26.Google Scholar
Miles, A. E. W. & Grigson, C. eds. (2003). Colyer's Variations and Diseases of the Teeth of Animals, revised edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Milham, P. & Thompson, P. (1976). Relative antiquity of human occupation and extinct fauna at Madura Cave, south-eastern Australia. Mankind, 10: 175–80.Google Scholar
Mithen, S. (2003). After the Ice: A Global Human History 20,000–5000 BC. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolsen.Google Scholar
Miyao, T., Nishizawa, T., Hanamura, H. & Koyasu, K. (1984). Mammalian remains of the earliest Jomon period at the rockshelter site of Tochibara, Nagano Pref., Japan. Journal of Growth, 23: 40–56.Google Scholar
Morey, D. F. (1992). Size, shape and development in the evolution of the domestic dog. Journal of Archaeological Science, 19: 181–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Musil, R. (1984). The first known domestication of wolves in central Europe. In Animals and Archaeology: 4. Husbandry in Europe. eds. Grigson, C. & Clutton-Brock, J.. Oxford: BAR International Series, 227, pp. 23–6.Google Scholar
Napierala, H & Uerpmann, H-P. (2012). A “new” Palaeolithic dog from Central Europe. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 22: 127–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nobis, G. (1981). Das älteste Haustier des Menschen. Unterkiefer eines hundes aus dem Magdaléniengrab von Bonn-Oberkassel. Bonn: Das Reinische Landesmuseum.Google Scholar
O'Connor, S., Barham, A. & Aplin, K. et al. (2011). The power of paradigms: examining the evidential basis for early to mid-Holocene pigs and pottery in Melanesia. Journal of Pacific Archaeology, 2: 1–25.Google Scholar
Olsen, S. J. (1977). The Chinese wolf, ancestor of New World dogs. Science, 197: 553–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Olsen, S. J. (1985). Origins of the Domestic Dog: the Fossil Record. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
Ovodov, N. D., Crockford, S. J., Kuzmin, Y. V. et al. (2011). A 33,000 year-old incipient dog from the Altai Mountains of Siberia: Evidence of the earliest domestication disrupted by the Last Glacial Maximum. PLoS ONE, 6: e22821. http://doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022821 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pang, J-F., Kluetsch, C., Zou, X-J. et al. (2009). MtDNA data indicate a single origin for dogs south of Yangtze River, less than 16,300 years ago, from numerous wolves. Molecular Biology and Evolution 26: 2849–64.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Robert, M. B. & Parfitt, S. A. A. eds. (1999). Boxgrove: A Middle Pleistocene hominid site at Eartham Quarry, Boxgrove, West Sussex. English Heritage Archaeological Report, 17. London: English Heritage.Google Scholar
Savolainen, P., Leitner, T. & Wilton, A. N. et al. (2004). A detailed picture of the origin of the Australian dingo, obtained from the study of mitochondrial DNA. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 101: 12387–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schulting, R. (1994). The hair of the dog: the identification of a coast Salish dog-hair blanket from Yale, British Columbia. Canadian Journal of Archaeology, 18: 57–76.Google Scholar
Schwartz, M. 1997. A History of Dogs in the Early Americas. New Haven, CT & London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, B. P. & Litchfield, C. A. (2009). A review of the relationship between indigenous Australians, dingoes (Canis dingo) and domestic dogs (Canis familiaris). Anthrozoös, 22: 111–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Statham, M., Trut, L. N., Sacks, B. N. et al. (2011). On the origin of a domesticated species: identifying the parent population of Russian silver foxes (Vulpes vulpes). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 103: 168–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Street, M. (1989). Jäger und Schamen: Bedburg-Königshoven ein Wohnplatz am Niederrhein vor 10000 Jahren. Mainz: Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums.Google Scholar
Tchernov, E. & Horwitz, L. K. (1991). Body size diminution under domestication: unconscious selection in primeval domesticates. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 10: 54–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tchernov, E. & Valla, F. F. (1997). Two new dogs, and other Natufian dogs, from the southern Levant. Journal of Archaeological Science, 24: 65–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trut, L. N., Plyusnina, I. Z. & Oskina, I. N. (2004). An experiment on fox domestication and debatable issues of evolution of the dog. Russian Journal of Genetics, 40: 644–55.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Turnbull, P. F. & Reed, C. A. (1974). The fauna from the terminal Pleistocene of Palegawra Cave, a Zarzian occupation site in northeastern Iraq. Fieldiana Anthropology, 63: 81–146.Google Scholar
Vilà, C., Savolainen, P., Maldonado, J. E. et al. (1997). Multiple and ancient origins of the dog. Science, 276: 1687–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
vonHoldt, B. J., Pollinger, P., Lohmueller, K. E. et al. (2010). Genome-wide SNP and haplotype analyses reveal a rich history underlying dog domestication, Nature, 464: 898–902.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wayne, R. K. (1986). Cranial morphology of domestic and wild canids: The influence of development on morphological change. Evolution, 40: 243–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wolfgramm, A. (1894). Die Einwirkung der Gefangenschaft auf die Gestaltung des Wolfsschädels. [The influence of captivity on the development of wolf skulls.] Zoologische Jahrbucher. Jena Abteilung fur Systematik Bd. 3: 773–822.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×