History of Dogs – 400,000 BC to the First Century

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History of Dogs Timeline
400,000 BC – First Century

  • 400,000 YEARS AGO Man and wolf share the same hunting ground and habitat, as indicated by evidence discovered at the site of Boxgrove, Kent, UK.
  • 14,000 YEARS AGO Earliest evidence of domestic dog (a mandible), at Bonn-Oberkassel, Germany.
  • 12,000 YEARS AGO Skeletons found at the Natufian site of Ein Mallaha, northern Israel, provide evidence that a puppy and human were buried cradled together.
  • 10,000 YEARS AGO Dog-wolf hybrids in North America: remains are discovered at the Agate Basin site in Wyoming, USA.
  • 8500 YEARS AGO Three dogs are deliberately buried: skeletons are discovered at Koster, Illinois, USA.
  • 8000 YEARS AGO Dog remains dating from this time are found at Tocibara in Japan, alongside remains of the now-extinct Japanese wolf Canis lupus hodophilax.
  • c. 6000—1500 BC Rock paintings at Tassili N’Ajjer, Algeria, depict some of the earliest known images of the dog in art.
  • c. 5000-1000 BC The magnificent limestone ‘Statue of a Dog’ is made in Mesopotamia.
  • c. 2000-1000 BC Distinctly different types of dog emerge, identifiable from artworks, including the greyhound type, mastiff type and small, short-legged dog.
  • c. 3468 BC Fo-Hi, mythical founder of Chinese dynasties, extols the virtues of the ‘sleeve dog’, small enough to fit in a garment’s wide sleeve.
  • c. 2600 BC Images of the dog-god Anubis are frequent in Egyptian funerary art of this time; dog burial is practised; dog mummies from this time have been found.
  • 1200 BC Clay dog models depicting small, rotund dogs are made in the Basin of Mexico at Tlatilco.
  • 800 BC The Chinese Book of Rites, one of the earliest known taxonomies of dogs, describes hunting dogs, guard dogs and edible dogs.
  • c. EIGHTH CENTURY BC Homer writes the Odyssey, which tells of Odysseus’ faithful hound, Argus.
  • c. 771 BC The story of Romulus and Remus, founders of the city of Rome, who were nurtured by a she-wolf.
  • c. 668-626 BC King Assurbanipal of Assyria keeps large packs of formidable hunting dogs.
  • 350 BC Aristotle (384-322 BC) writes his History of Animals, in which he describes different types of dog, including the Epirotic, the Laconian hound and the Molossian.

 

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