The Dog Burials at Achaemenid Ashkelon Revisited (original) (raw)
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The Ashkelon Dog Cemetery Conundrum
Between 1989 and 1992 about 1200 dog remains were excavated at Ashkelon as part of the Leon Levy expedition. This find generated much interest and debate at the time. The leader of the excavations, Prof. Lawrence E. Stager of Harvard University, attributed the dog cemetery to the presence of a cultic healing centre to which the dogs were supposed to have belonged. As no such centre has been found up till the present, in this article the available facts from the excavations, the subsequent research and analysis of the remains by Dr. Paula Wapnish and Prof. Brian Hesse, as well as other opinions will be reassessed. A completely novel explanation will be formulated for the presence of so many dogs in Ashkelon during the Persian era and why they were buried in that particular place.
Simple dog burials, dating primarily to the second half of the 1st millennium b.c.e. (Persian–Hellenistic periods [ca. 6th–1st centuries b.c.e.]), have been excavated at more than a dozen Levantine sites, ranging from a handful of burials to more than 1,000 at Ashkelon. This study systematizes previously discussed canine interments, distinguishing intentional whole burials from other phenomena (e.g., dogs found in refuse pits), and suggests a new interpretation in light of human mortuary practice in the Iron Age II–III-period (ca. 10th–4th centuries b.c.e.) Levant. The buried dogs seem to be individuals from unmanaged populations living within human settlements and not pets or working dogs. Frequent references to dogs in literary and epigraphic Northwest Semitic evidence (including Hebrew, Phoenician, and Punic personal names) indicate a complex, familiar relationship between dogs and humans in the Iron Age Levant, which included positive associations such as loyalty and obedience. At some point in the mid-1st millennium b.c.e., mortuary rites began to be performed by humans for their feral canine “neighbors” in a manner resembling contemporaneous low-energy–expenditure human burials. This behavioral change may represent a shift in the conception of social boundaries in the Achaemenid–Hellenistic-period Levant.
The Dogs in Three Theban Private Tombs
JGUAA(2), 2017
In ancient Egypt, it was known that dogs were considered as ones of several Canidae. Since predynastic period, dogs were the earliest animals to be known and pictured. The main point of this article is to reveal the difference in use between the dogs used in hunting and those seated under the chairs of their owners especially in three Theban private tombs(TT.Nr.21,20,154), where dogs were considered to be more than pets for their owners. Further we will try to answer the question: why dogs in many tombs were seated under the chairs of their owners?
Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 2023
Studies of dog remains focused on the Iron Age southern Levant generally highlight their unique nature in the archaeological context, specifically in relation to their post-mortem exploitation. Here we review the published archaeological and textual data to evaluate the current understanding of dogs' roles in their Iron Age settings. The analysis reveals that dogs are relatively common in the archaeological record, having been reported at 66% of sites. This study further contextualizes this presence in light of their co-occurrence with caprine and wild taxa. The significant number of dog remains indicates that they were part of the social matrix of a village. While dogs have been viewed as 'unclean' or pariah, based on certain textual references in the Hebrew Bible, we assert, on the basis of the archaeological record, that they were part of the life of the village, functioning as herders, guards and occasionally hunters.