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A Dog Burial from the Sacramento Valley

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

William G. Haag  and
Robert F. Heizer
William G. Haag
Affiliation:
School of Geology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Robert F. Heizer
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, California
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Extract

The partial dog skeleton comes from site SJo-68 (formerly C68) near Thornton, California. The remains consist of the cranium and mandible, the atlas and several cervicals, pelves, tail vertebrae, and two femora. These parts lay in anatomical articulation so that we may assume that the partly dismembered skeleton, still bound by integument, was buried. The archaeology of the site as known in 1948 has been published. (Heizer, 1949, p. 7.) The dog remains lay at a depth of thirtyfour inches from the surface, solidly imbedded in calcareous hardpan, and in proximity to human burials. Indeed, the whole deposit was heavily charged with human skeletons, and it is reasonable to assume that the dog had been intentionally buried. Animal burials are not uncommon in later culture horizons in the same area (Heizer and Hewes, 1940).

Type
Facts and Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 18 , Issue 3 , January 1953 , pp. 263 - 265
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1953

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References

William, G. 1948. An Osteometric Analysis of Some Aboriginal Dogs. Reports in Anthropology, University of Kentucky, Vol. 7, pp. 205–64. Lexington.Google Scholar
Heizer, Robert F. 1949. The Archaeology of Central California, I: The Early Horizon. University of California Anthropological Records, Vol. 12, No. 1, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Heizer, Robert F. n.d. Archaeology of the Uyak Site, Kodiak Island, Alaska, Manuscript.Google Scholar
Heizer, Robert F. and Hewes, G. W. 1940. Animal Ceremonialism in Central California in the Light of Archaeology. American Anthropologist, Vol. 42, pp. 587–603. Menasha.Google Scholar
Hrdlicka, A. 1944. Anthropology of Kodiak Island. Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology, 486 pp. Philadelphia.Google Scholar