Scavenger and Sentry

Abstract

Foragers domesticated dogs before plants and livestock. In the Near East, dogs are present from the Epipaleolithic, living with settled foragers. With the advent of farming in the Neolithic, human activities changed and dogs’ lives surely did as well. Dogs have served many roles in human societies: food, pet, guard, herding aid, and scavenger, to name a few. This chapter examines the remains of dogs and their activities (gnawed and digested bones) contextually at Çatalhöyük, a large Neolithic site occupied for approximately 1,000 years in central Anatolia. At Çatalhöyük, the evidence suggests that dogs did not play a major role in hunting or herding, but served as sentries and garbage processors. In particular, they may have contributed significantly to improving human health by consuming human feces. Comparisons with other Near Eastern Neolithic sites suggest that dogs may have occupied different niches in other places. However, there is little evidence that they were used extensively in either hunting or herding, or that they were regarded as companions in the Near Eastern Neolithic, in contrast to the earlier Epipaleolithic. Dogs become more widespread and ubiquitous through time in the Neolithic, suggesting their value increased as agriculture became established.