European dogs doubled in size from 8000 to 2000 years ago, a new study suggests.
To see how the size—and jobs—of dogs changed over time, Martin Welker, a zooarchaeology curator at the Arizona State Museum, and his colleagues examined the remains of 14 dogs uncovered from ancient human settlements in Croatia. They also incorporated data from another 45 ancient dogs, some from Croatia and some from neighboring countries. The remains dated from about 8000 years ago in the Neolithic to the Roman period, about 2000 years ago.
By the Bronze Age, which started roughly 6000 years ago in this region, the average mass increased to about 17 kilograms. And by Roman times,A domestic dog jaw bone discovered in a Neolithic village dating to about 7,000 years ago.Historical documents—including ancient Roman records giving advice to farmers on herding and guard dogs—suggest even bigger dogs at the time, reaching at least 32 kilograms, nearly the weight of today’s great Pyrenees dogs.
Isotope analysis of the teeth of Neolithic sheep, which can reveal ancient diets, suggests that, as time went on, they grazed higher in the mountains. “In doing so, you expose them to larger risk from predators like wolves and bears,” Welker says, making guard dogs important.
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