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The carefully bury corpse of five wienerwurst were late found in a 2,000 - yr - old doggy memorial park near the Arctic Circle in Siberia , accord to archeologist .
This discovery at the Ust - Polui archaeological site , in Salekhard , Russia , reveal close relationships between the region’speople and their animal " honorable friends"two millennia B.C. The wiener likely serve as pets , workers and source of food — and peradventure as sacrificial offer in spiritual ceremony , the researchers said .
Archaeologists have discovered a prehistoric dog graveyard at a 2,000-year-old village near the Arctic Circle in Russia’s Siberia.
" The character ofdogsat Ust - Polui is really complex and variable , " Robert Losey , an archaeologist at the University of Alberta in Canada , wrote in an electronic mail to Live Science from Salekhard , where he is carrying out fieldwork at Ust - Polui . [ See photos of the prehistorical hot dog memorial park in Siberia ]
" The most outstanding thing is that the dog remains are really abundant compared to all other sites in the Arctic — there are over 115 dogs stand for at the site , " Losey tell . " Typically , sites have only a few dog remains — 10 at most . "
Working dogs
The andiron were belike involved in various tasks in the ancient Arctic small town , includingpulling sleds , he aver . The remains of two sleds , as well as a carved bone knife grip thought to render a sled bounder in a harness , have been found at the situation .
" Some [ cad ] were probably also used in hunting , for reindeer and birds , the cadaver of which were both abundant at the land site , " Losey aver .
Parts of a reindeer harness had also been found at Ust - Polui , he added , and dogs may have been used to crowd reindeer , as is still done today by some community in the region .
But despite evidence that thedogs worked with peopleand other creature , it was also clear that many of the dogs at Ust - Polui had been butchered and probably eat on , Losey said . Many of the dog pearl had cut brand on them , and were found spread out around the site in the same way as the ivory of other food animate being , such as cervid and birds , he said .
Some of the domestic dog consumptionmay have been related to sacrifices or rite , or even feasting , Losey noted . In fact , " at one place in the land site , the heads of 15 domestic dog were piled together , all with their brain cases broken open in the same way , " he said .
He added that the sacrificing of pawl was well documented among indigenous people in this region of Siberia , " and is done to appease spirits , or to ensure community of interests wellness , and so on . "
Prehistoric pets
But though it might have been a dog ’s life for most of the canine population of Ust - Polui , a few top hot dog seem to have enjoyed special treatment , the archaeologist said . [ 10 Things You Did n’t Know About dog ]
Of the more than 115 dogs that archaeologists distinguish among the fauna bone at Ust - Polui , the remains of just five dogs were find carefully buried in a group near one edge of the site , Losey said .
This separation in all likelihood indicates tight bonds between some people and some wienerwurst in the ancient village , he state .
Each of the prehistoric doggy Steffi Graf contained the total dog systema skeletale , put on its side in a shallow pit , similar to three human burials at the site , and they showed no signs of shambles or of being designedly killed , the researchers found .
" The only matter that distinguishes them from the human burials is their localisation . No other fauna at Ust - Polui were treated like this , " Losey said .
Ancient friendship
Losey started work with the dog persist from Ust - Polui three year ago , as part of his work studying the ancient family relationship between the great unwashed and dogs in the world ’s northern regions .
In 2013 in thejournal PLOS ONE , Losey published the results of his research into dog burials , see to around 8,000 old age ago , from archaeological website in the Lake Baikal region of Siberia .
Some of the dogs fromLake Baikalwere buried with ornament collars and what come along to be weighty goods , such as pottery jar and wooden spoon .
Losey say the differences between the two sites showed how people ’s relationships with dogs varied among cultures over the estimated 15,000 years since domestic dog evolve from Hugo Wolf .
" At Baikal , we have no evidence of blackguard consumption or sacrifice at all , and many of the dogs there are from carefully made burials , " Losey said .
Although tests on the dog remains at both sites suggested they would have been exchangeable to Siberian husky , the heel at Ust - Polui were much modest , with most weighing less than 50 lbs . ( 22 kilo ) and standing only 1.6 feet ( 0.5 meters ) marvelous at the articulatio humeri , Losey said .
Original article onLive Science .
