Archaeologists have identified the oldest genetically confirmed dog remains from a site in Turkey dating back 15,800 years, pushing the timeline for canine domestication by about 5,000 years. Additional remains from the UK, around 14,300 years old, show dogs were widespread across Europe during the hunter-gatherer era. The findings suggest early humans spread domesticated dogs through cultural exchanges.
Researchers at the University of Oxford, led by Lachie Scarsbrook, analyzed genomes from early dog-like remains across Europe. The earliest specimen comes from the Pınarbaşı site on Turkey's Central Anatolian Plateau, confirmed as a dog from the Upper Palaeolithic period, 15,800 years ago. This surpasses previous records of about 10,900 years by roughly 5,000 years, Scarsbrook noted: “By at least 15,800 years ago, dogs were already dogs, and they already look genetically and morphologically like modern dogs.” A second dog jawbone from Gough’s Cave in Somerset, UK, dates to 14,300 years ago and shares striking genetic similarities with the Turkish find, indicating a common ancestor despite separation by thousands of kilometers between Anatolian hunter-gatherers and the Magdalenian culture. The team proposes that the Epigravettian culture, expanding from Italy, carried these dogs northward into western Europe and southeast into Turkey between 18,500 and 14,000 years ago, fostering interactions. Isotope studies at Pınarbaşı reveal dogs ate fish like their human companions and received burials similar to people, hinting at symbolic treatment. At Gough’s Cave, a harsh environment saw humans and dogs sharing omnivorous diets, with the dog mandible showing cut marks and perforations akin to ritualistic human cannibalism practices there. William Marsh of the Natural History Museum in London observed: “The nuggets of the modern interaction between humans and dogs seems to have been there.” Scarsbrook suggests domestication began during the Last Glacial Maximum, 26,000 to 20,000 years ago, when humans and wolves sought southern refuges. The study appears in Nature.