8,000 year old carved image maybe first ever of a leashed dogs

Leashed dogs and a man who is how should we say, excited, holding the leashes maybe the oldest image of dog and "master".


An image that is at least 8,000 years old is carved into a sandstone cliff that shows what looks like dogs that are being controlled and trained by a man who is holding the leashes.
The image is thousands of years earlier than thought. Seems like dates of human achievements continue to be pushed backwards in time.

The engravings likely date back more than 8000 years, making them the earliest depictions of dogs, a new study reveals. And those lines are probably leashes, suggesting that humans mastered the art of training and controlling dogs thousands of years earlier than previously thought.

www.sciencemag.org...

The carving is located in the Arabian desert and there are a total of 13 dogs, 2 are leashed. The man in the carving also has a bow so it would seem man and dog enjoyed a little hunting together in the distant past.

Carved into a sandstone cliff on the edge of a bygone river in the Arabian Desert, a hunter draws his bow for the kill. He is accompanied by 13 dogs, each with its own coat markings; two animals have lines running from their necks to the man’s waist.

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Just wondering how we absolutely know those are dogs? The rock appears broken, too bad we can't see what he's pointing the bow at.

originally posted by: seasonal
An image that is at least 8,000 years old is carved into a sandstone cliff that shows what looks like dogs that are being controlled and trained by a man who is holding the leashes.

Thems be hounds of the hunting variety.

originally posted by: intrptr


Just wondering how we absolutely know those are dogs? The rock appears broken, too bad we can't see what he's pointing the bow at.

We are dealing with Melinda Zeder, an archaeozoologist at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C so there is a possibility this whole thing is staged.

a reply to: seasonal

There's a carved giraffe on a big chunk of rock in the Saharan desert. Be about the same age as the dogs carved on your rock. The giraffe has a ring in its nose for a leash.

Dogs man. No dogs no us.

And God bless those Africans for domestication of dogs. A lot of people say dogs domesticated us and I agree.

a reply to: SilverOwls

I can see that if it were not for dogs we may not have been so successful.

Wonder how many times early man got rolled hard by dogs before the dog man paradigm finally worked out?

a reply to: seasonal

We must have beaten and killed a good number before we got the right selection. They've saved many lives in return.

Btw your cat thread was beautiful.

a reply to: SilverOwls

Thank you.


I bet there was a pretty big turf war, with many a man and dog for the main ingredient for dinner.

originally posted by: seasonal

originally posted by: intrptr


Just wondering how we absolutely know those are dogs? The rock appears broken, too bad we can't see what he's pointing the bow at.

We are dealing with Melinda Zeder, an archaeozoologist at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C so there is a possibility this whole thing is staged.

Actually, no. Zeder is only commenting on the find. The site was worked by Maria Guagnin, an archaeologist at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History so the Smithsonian has nothing to do with the work, the data or the archaeological site aside from being used as a source of opinion by the articles author.

a reply to: peter vlar

If the Smithsonian is involved, in any way, I get a little skeptical.

a reply to: seasonal
My impression is that dogs are natural pack animals, who accept their owner as "leader of the pack". Perhaps that is a clue to the domestication process.
Man kills pack leader and takes over?
Or man kidnaps puppies young enough to grow up with transferred loyalty to the one who feeds them?

We don't need to assume that the prey was meant to be in the picture.
The message might be "We are the hunters of anything that's out there".

a reply to: DISRAELI


I read that dogs would hang out in outskirts of "ancient" man's camp and would get fed scraps and slowly they learned to trust each other.
I think swiping puppies makes more sense.

a reply to: seasonal
The two could overlap. If they were hanging around, it would be easier to kidnap them.
The key to making them useful in the hunt would be getting them to hand over what they found instead of eating it all themselves.

Until humans started interacting with wolves there weren't really any dogs hanging around humans, just a few wolves who had a genetic flaw. One that made them friendly. That flaw become more widespread as wolves became...dogs.

Researchers already know that dogs are hypersocial compared with wolves, and the team confirmed this by comparing the behavior of 18 dogs—some purebreds, others mixed breeds—with 10 captive, hand-raised wolves at a research and education institute in Indiana. As others had shown, the dogs were much friendlier than the wolves, even though the wolves had been raised by people. Both hand-raised wolves and dogs greet human visitors, but dogs continue to interact with people much longer than wolves do, even when visited by a stranger.

www.sciencemag.org...

a reply to: DISRAELI

True, I had a terrier (terror) that would make it a habit of planning for hours to snag a chicken bone, somehow from somewhere when our dinner was chicken. After a successful hunt she would not, and I mean not let that chicken bone go. I had to let her eat it.

Getting to get a dog that by any standard is starving to let go of a kill is a feat in it's self.

originally posted by: seasonal

originally posted by: intrptr


Just wondering how we absolutely know those are dogs? The rock appears broken, too bad we can't see what he's pointing the bow at.

We are dealing with Melinda Zeder, an archaeozoologist at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C so there is a possibility this whole thing is staged.

That was my next question. As old as these are supposed to be, they sure look ... freshly carved.

originally posted by: seasonal
Leashed dogs and a man who is how should we say, excited, holding the leashes maybe the oldest image of dog and "master".

First recorded Caveman of the Redneck variety.

a reply to: intrptr

The Smithsonian is a super duper powerful org. And what they say does indeed go. They could be 60,000 years old but after talking to the all knowing Smith, they are 8,000.

originally posted by: seasonal
a reply to: intrptr

The Smithsonian is a super duper powerful org. And what they say does indeed go. They could be 60,000 years old but after talking to the all knowing Smith, they are 8,000.

Says who? They look too pristine to be that old.

.o2

a reply to: intrptr

And that could be the case too.
I have a hard time trusting an organization that looses so many irreplaceable artifacts and keep people from looking at artifacts because of ware houses that have asbestos in the building.