Germonpre et al 2021 Late Glacial Palaeodog Goyet (original) (raw)

Most researchers accept that by the end of the Pleistocene dogs were part of the daily life of prehistoric hunter-gatherers. Recent analyses of the mammal assemblages from the third cave of Goyet (Belgium) reveal that a large component of the material from bone level A1 postdates the Last Glacial Maximum. The biometric study of the large canid remains from this level shows that an ulna can be described as from a medium-sized Palaeolithic dog with an estimated body mass of ~ 20 kg. A direct AMS 14 C date of the bone demonstrates that the dog lived during the Bølling / Allerød interstadial. Human and carnivore modifications of the bone indicate that the animal was dismembered by a contemporaneous human individual, likely to obtain its meat, and then gnawed by a canid-sized carnivore. Presumably, Palaeolithic dogs fulfilled diverse roles in Late Palaeolithic societies including as a source of food.