Archaeologists and genetic researchers have uncovered some of the world’s earliest confirmed domestic dogs at two prehistoric sites in central Türkiye, offering remarkable new insight into how dogs spread across Europe and developed close relationships with humans thousands of years ago.
The discoveries, published in two recent papers in the journal Nature, centre on the archaeological sites of Pınarbaşı and Boncuklu in central Anatolia. The excavations are led by Professor Douglas Baird of the University of Liverpool in collaboration with Turkish and international researchers.
The findings are being described as a major breakthrough in understanding the origins of domestic dogs and their rapid expansion alongside human populations during the transition from the late Ice Age to the early Neolithic period.
At the Pınarbaşı rock shelter, researchers identified dog puppies dating back around 15,800 years using ancient nuclear DNA — currently the earliest dogs ever directly confirmed through this form of genetic analysis.
The site was used by mobile hunter-gatherer communities during the Epipalaeolithic period, between roughly 16,000 and 10,000 years ago. Archaeologists discovered that the dogs were not only living alongside humans, but were also buried in ways suggesting emotional and ritual significance.
Professor Baird said the evidence points to unusually close relationships between people and dogs at a very early stage of domestication.
“The archaeology makes clear that these dogs were close companions of humans,” he said. “Like humans, they were carefully buried in the rock shelter and appear to have received ritual treatment similar to that given to people.”
Isotope analysis revealed that the dogs consumed large amounts of fish, one of the main components of the human diet at the site, further suggesting that the animals lived closely with the community.
Researchers believe the dogs likely assisted with hunting and protection. The communities at Pınarbaşı hunted wild sheep and large wild cattle while living in a landscape inhabited by predators such as wolves and leopards.
Ancient DNA specialists from the Natural History Museum, the University of Oxford and LMU Munich compared the Turkish dogs with prehistoric canid remains discovered at Gough’s Cave in the United Kingdom.
Despite the enormous geographical distance, the animals showed striking genetic similarities, suggesting that early dog populations spread rapidly from one end of Europe to the other within only a few centuries.
The study also identified related early dogs at archaeological sites in Germany, Italy and Switzerland, demonstrating that domestic dogs had already become widespread across Europe and Anatolia by at least 14,000 years ago.
Dr William Marsh of the Natural History Museum, co-first author of the study, described the findings as transformative for the study of dog domestication.
“The genetic identification of these Palaeolithic dogs represents a major step forward in understanding the earliest dogs,” he said. “The evidence clearly shows that dogs were already widely dispersed across Europe and Türkiye by at least 14,000 years ago.”
Researchers also noted that dogs appeared to move freely between culturally and genetically distinct human groups, suggesting they were highly valued across different communities.
A second study focused on the nearby Neolithic settlement of Boncuklu, located around 30 kilometres from Pınarbaşı and dating to approximately 9000 BC, shortly after the end of the Ice Age.
The people living at Boncuklu were descendants of the earlier hunter-gatherers at Pınarbaşı but had adopted permanent settlement life in the wetlands of central Anatolia. They also began cultivating domesticated plants and closely managing wild sheep populations.
Using new genetic techniques, researchers identified domestic dogs among large collections of canid remains found at the settlement. At Boncuklu, dogs were sometimes buried directly alongside humans, further highlighting their importance within early farming societies.
Researchers believe the animals may have served as hunting dogs, guard animals and possibly even early herding dogs.
The study also found that when early farmers from western Anatolia later migrated into Europe, they brought Anatolian dogs with them. These dogs eventually interbred with local European dog populations to a greater extent than the human farming populations themselves.
Scientists say the findings demonstrate not only the importance of dogs in prehistoric societies, but also their extraordinary ability to cross cultural boundaries and integrate into human communities across vast distances.
The discoveries are now reshaping understanding of how one of humanity’s oldest animal companions first spread across Europe and the Near East at the end of the Ice Age.
Header Image Credit : IFR
Sources : Institute for Field Research
