Dogs

Archaeology beyond Domestication

Brandi Bethke, Amanda Burtt

• Publisher: University Press of Florida
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9780813080574, 9780813066363
• eBook ISBN: 9780813073316
• Topic: Sozialwissenschaften
• Subtopic: Archäologie

This volume offers a rich archaeological portrait of the human-canine connection. Contributors investigate the ways people have viewed and valued dogs in different cultures around the world and across the ages. Case studies from North and South America, the Arctic, Australia, and Eurasia present evidence for dogs in roles including pets, guards, hunters, and herders. In these chapters, faunal analysis from the Ancient Near East suggests that dogs contributed to public health by scavenging garbage, and remains from a Roman temple indicate that dogs were offered as sacrifices in purification rites. Essays also chronicle the complex partnership between Aboriginal peoples and the dingo and describe how the hunting abilities of dogs made them valuable assets for Indigenous groups in the Amazon rainforest. The volume draws on multidisciplinary methods that include zooarchaeological analysis; scientific techniques such as dental microwear, isotopic, and DNA analyses; and the integration of history, ethnography, multispecies scholarship, and traditional cultural knowledge to provide an in-depth account of dogs' lives. Showing that dogs have been a critical ally for humankind through cooperation and companionship over thousands of years, this volume broadens discussions about how relationships between people and animals have shaped our world. Contributors: Brandi Bethke | Kate Britton | Amanda Burtt | Larisa R.G. DeSantis | Melanie Fillios | Emily Lena Jones | Loukas Koungoulos | Robert Losey | Edouard Masson-Maclean | Ellen McManus-Fry | Victoria Monagle | Victoria Moses | Angela R. Perri | Nerissa Russell | Peter W. Stahl

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Prehistoric Dogs as Hunting Tools: The Advent of Animal Biotechnology
• 3. Dog Life and Death in an Ancestral Pueblo Landscape
• 4. The Archaeology of Dogs at the Precontact Site of Nunalleq, Western Alaska
• 5. Using Dental Microwear to Understand the Dietary Behavior of Domestic Dogs in Precontact North America
• 6. Scavenger and Sentry: The Roles of Dogs at Çatalhöyük, Turkey, in the Context of the Near Eastern Neolithic
• 7. Dog Days to Horse Days: The Introduction of the Horse and Its Impact on Human-Dog Relationships among the Blackfoot
• 8. Exotic Dogs and Indigenous Humans in Tropical Northeastern South America
• 9. Between Ethnography and Prehistory: The Case of the Australian Dingo
• 10. Powerful Pups: A Case Study for Dog Sacrifice in Archaic Rome from the Area Sacra di Sant’Omobono
• 11. Conclusion: Conceptualizing and Investigating our Relationships with Dogs
• List of Contributors
• Index