Late 1st-Millennium B.C.E. Levantine Dog Burials as an Extension of Human Mortuary Behavior.

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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