Buried, eaten, sacrificed: Archaeological dog remains from Trans-Baikal, Siberia

Abstract

Trans-Baikal, the interior region just to the east of Siberia's Lake Baikal, has a fairly extensive but largely unstudied archaeological record of human interaction with domestic dogs. This region's archaeological dog remains are documented for the first time in this paper. New radiocarbon dates indicate that dogs first appear in this region by at least 7900 years ago during the Siberian Early Neolithic period. These dogs lived with the region's foragers, particularly in the southern portions of Trans-Baikal, and were sometimes buried, indicating their unique status in these communities. Dogs during this period were likely involved in hunting and burden carrying, but there is no evidence they were eaten. For much of the Middle Holocene, dog remains appear to be absent in Trans-Baikal, a pattern similar to that seen in the Cis-Baikal region to the west. During the Iron Age, dogs become food sources in Trans-Baikal, being abundant in some sites occupied by pastoral and agricultural groups. This same period also witnesses some dog sacrifice. Overall, dogs were clearly widespread in Trans- and Cis-Baikal by ~8000 years ago, and in all likelihood were present in much of Siberia in smaller numbers far earlier than this.