A dog left its mark on a mud brick about 4,000 years ago, and the imprint survived in the ruins of a Bronze Age house at Tavsanli Hoyuk in western Turkey. Archaeologists announced the find on October 26.
The house was destroyed in a fire around 1700 B.C.E., according to evidence from its ruins. The brick, made from a mixture of water, soil and straw and left to dry in the sun, bears an imprint with four rounded toe pads.
Excavations at Tavsanli Hoyuk have been led by researchers from Bilecik Seyh Edebali University since 2021. The site began as a village around 8,000 years ago. After flooding covered the area, people returned around 3200 B.C.E., and the settlement remained inhabited for roughly 1,500 years.
Other finds associated with the attack and destruction include spearheads, arrowheads and daggers. Earlier excavations also uncovered the remains of two people beneath the ruins of a house.
Excavation director Erkan Fidan said the print offers a direct glimpse of the long relationship between people and dogs in Anatolia. Researchers cannot tell whether this particular dog was kept as a pet, he noted, but the mark connects the site to an everyday moment from four millennia ago.
Sources: Smithsonian Magazine.