In Russia dogs were bred as far back as 9,000 years ago
Scientists from the Institute of history of material culture RAS believe that the people who lived on the zhokhov island 9,000 years ago, bred dogs of different breeds for specific purposes.
The results of the work presented in the journal of Archaeological Science.
Discovered on the island of zhokhov archaeological finds site of ancient hunters — the indicate the presence of people here more than 9000 years ago. In those days the island was part of mainland land. It is established that the people hunted reindeer and polar bears. Scientists believe that they were necessary means of transportation, as well as aid in the hunting of bears.
Earlier excavations unearthed a dog’s skull with a severely worn dentition by the system.
This gives reason to assume that people long cared for the animals until their old age.
Also found were parts of the sled, not the sled. Now, in order to confirm that the remains belonged to dogs and not wolves, archaeologists have compared the two most well-preserved skull with the skulls of wolves and Siberian husky. They found that one of the skulls was dog, and the second belonged to a hybrid of dog and wolf.
After analyzing found the skull and bones, the archaeologists were able to figure out how to look these dogs in life. According to them, the dogs weighed from 16 to 25 kilograms and resembles the Siberian husky. And other dogs, rather volkosob, weighed about 29 pounds and may have been similar to Alaskan Malamutes.
According to lead author Vladimir Pitulko, good sled dogs that typically weigh 20 to 25 pounds. The scientist came to the conclusion that the inhabitants of the island Zhokhova, probably bred small dogs for a ride, and volkosobs of hunting polar bears.