The earliest genetic evidence for the existence of dogs, dating to about 15,800 years ago - more than 5,000 years earlier than previously thought - has been identified by a team of researchers including archaeologists from UCL.
Their study, published in Nature, analysed ancient DNA from remains discovered at archaeological sites in the UK and Turkey (Türkiye) dating to the Late Upper Palaeolithic period, approximately 14,000 to 16,000 years ago, a time before agriculture when humans were hunter-gatherers.
Scientists have long known that modern domestic dogs split off from grey wolves, most likely toward the end of the last Ice Age. However, evidence from ancient archaeological sites has been limited and difficult to confirm. During the early phases of domestication, the skeletons of dogs and wolves would have been indistinguishable, and their behavioural differences do not leave traces in the archaeological record.
Researchers from UCL played a critical role by identifying that skeletal remains excavated from the Upper Palaeolithic site of Gough’s Cave in Somerset belonged to domesticated dogs rather than wolves. This was subsequently confirmed by DNA analysis. Similar tests found that remains at Pinarbasi and Boncuklu in Turkey were also from dogs dating to the Upper Palaeolithic period.
Co-author Simon Parfitt (UCL Institute of Archaeology and the Natural History Museum) said: "The first clue that the Gough’s Cave bones, dating to around 15,000 years ago, belonged to dogs came from their unusually small size - particularly striking compared with the exceptionally large wolves of the time.
"DNA now confirms they were ancient domestic dogs, loyal companions to Ice Age hunters at the northern edge of the inhabited world. Notably, some bones show deliberate human modification, including perforations in mandibles, suggesting these dogs held symbolic significance after death as well as companionship during life."
Gough’s Cave, which Parfitt has been studying for many years, is an archaeological site in Cheddar Gorge known for yielding a wide range of ancient human and animal remains as well as stone tools and other artifacts dating to the Late Upper Palaeolithic period.
Previous studies have mostly used very short DNA sequences and skeletal measurements to evaluate the earliest presence of dogs in the archaeological record.
In this new study, researchers from 17 institutions recovered whole genomes from archaeological specimens more than 10,000 years old. They then compared the genomes with more than 1,000 modern and ancient dogs and wolves from across the world.
The results of these analyses confirmed that these bones belonged to dogs and pushed back the earliest direct evidence for dogs by more than 5,000 years. Re-analysis of the earlier data also showed that dogs were likely distributed across multiple hunter-gatherer communities in Europe toward the end of the Ice Age.
Co-author Dr Selina Brace (honorary researcher at UCL and merit researcher at the Natural History Museum) said: "Pushing the date of the earliest genetically identified dog back 5,000 years is a significant breakthrough. Morphological analysis performed at the museum suggested dogs were present in Europe 15,000 years ago, but it’s great to be able to confirm this with ancient DNA."
These new DNA data revealed not only that the Gough’s Cave and Pinarbasi individuals were dogs, but that they were more closely related to the ancestors of present-day European and Middle Eastern breeds, such as boxers and salukis, than to Arctic breeds like Siberian huskies. This indicates that today’s major dog genetic lineages must have been established by the Upper Palaeolithic period.
Lead author Dr William Marsh, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Natural History Museum, said: "The genetic identification of two Palaeolithic dogs from Gough’s Cave and Pinarbasi represents a step-change in our understanding of the earliest dogs. These specimens allowed us to identify additional ancient dogs from sites in Germany, Italy and Switzerland, which clearly show that dogs were already widely dispersed across Europe and Türkiye by at least 14,000 years ago."
Professor Louise Martin (UCL Institute of Archaeology) is part of the broader international team that identified some of the early dog remains found at two sites in Central Anatolia, Turkey. The team sampled the bones from Boncuklu, an early Neolithic site near Pinarbasi where the oldest remains were found. While Pinarbasi would only have been occupied part of the year by people who hunted and foraged for food, Boncuklu was a sedentary village occupied by people who cultivated crops and tended sheep.
Professor Martin said: "At both sites the dogs were given burials, with some at Boncuklu buried alongside humans. It highlights the special close relationship between people and dogs even at these early stages."
Though unclear precisely what role these dogs played in Palaeolithic communities, it’s likely they would have served as some combination of hunting dogs, companions and guard dogs. Evidence suggests they may have been exchanged between distinct groups across Europe.
That humans and dogs lived together and often shared similar diets was also evident from the isotopic analyses that Professor Rhiannon Stevens (UCL Institute of Archaeology) contributed to, which examined subtle variations in the types of chemical elements in the remains, and which were led by researchers at the University of York and the Natural History Museum.
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