The Advantages of Owning a Palaeolitic Dog

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00094862%3A_____%2F23%3AN0000068" target="_blank" >RIV/00094862:_____/23:N0000068 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://www.archaeopress.com/Archaeopress/Products/9781803273549" target="_blank" >https://www.archaeopress.com/Archaeopress/Products/9781803273549</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.32028/9781803273549" target="_blank" >10.32028/9781803273549</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

The Advantages of Owning a Palaeolitic Dog

Original language description

Pleistocene wolves are the single ancestors of dogs. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the initial steps in the domestication process of the wolf. We favour a human-initiated model in which wolf pups were adopted by Upper Palaeolithic people. Captive wolf pups could then have been raised at Upper Palaeolithic camps for several motives and it is likely some pups, the most docile and less fearsome ones, could have survived until adulthood and reproduced, permitting a new selection on every next generation, ultimately leading to Palaeolithic dogs. We propose that the initial beginning of the wolf domestication process was linked with the cultural traditions of some Upper Palaeolithic societies. We review here the close relationships that existed between prehistoric humans and the first domestic canids. It can be expected that the presence of Palaeolithic dogs at camp sites and gathering localities conveyed some selective advantage to their owners. The Palaeolithic dogs could have been very useful as guards, by warning of the approach of predators or unfamiliar humans through vocalisations; this would have provided protection to the inhabitants of the camps and to the gatherers away from the settlements when accompanied by Palaeolithic dogs. Furthermore, Palaeolithic dogs could potentially have been suitable to increase the level of mobility of their people, helping with the transportation of firewood, lithics, gear, body parts of prey, etc. In addition, the anthropogenic manipulations of several Palaeolithic dog skulls, such as the perforation of the brain case or the insertion of objects in the mouth cavity, testify of the special social standing these canids held within some Upper Palaeolithic societies.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

C - Chapter in a specialist book

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

60102 - Archaeology

Project

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Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2023

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Book/collection name

Dogs, Past and Present, An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Oxford, Archaeopress

ISBN

978-1-80327-354-9

Number of pages of the result

9

Pages from-to

63-71

Number of pages of the book

502

Publisher name

Archaeopress Archaeology

Place of publication

Oxford

UT code for WoS chapter

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