Van Giffen’s Dogs: Cranial Osteometry of Iron Age to Medieval Period Dogs from the Northern Netherlands

E.E Scheele,C Çakırlar

doi:10.5334/joad.44

Abstract

This paper presents biometric data from a collection of 488 dogs skulls originating from 58 (archaeological) sites in the northern Netherlands dating from the Iron Age to the Medieval Period. The crania were originally collected and documented in the early 20 th century by Prof. Albert Egges van Giffen, one of the pioneers of Dutch archaeology and archaeozoology. The ‘De honden van Van Giffen’ project has transcribed, translated and digitized the original handwritten records and tables, supplementing the information with new photographs of a selection of the specimens, and made the dataset openly accessible for researchers worldwide on easy.dans.knaw.nl. This dataset is an unparalleled treasure trove of canid osteometric data with sustainable reuse potential for research into dog domestication, the evolution of dog breeds, and cranial variability in canids. Funding statement: Making the data digitally available in an open access environment was funded by the Koninklijke Nederlandse Academie van Wetenschappen (KNAW) via Data Archiving and Network Services (DANS) as a Kleine Data Projecten (KDP) grant. The original data and facilities for carrying out the project were provided by the Groningen Institute of Archaeology of the University of Groningen.

Highlights

(1) Overview Context This data was collected by Prof
Albert Egges Van Giffen in the context of his archaeological research into the faunal assemblages of the terp region of the northern Netherlands (Figure 1), as well as the domestication of dogs. His findings about the wild fauna of this region were published in 1913 in his book ‘Die Fauna der Wurten’ [1], which he subtitled ‘Part I’, because he was planning to publish a second book about the domestic animals of this region. As part of this undertaking, he collected a large number of dog skulls and mandibles from the terps and studied them osteometrically, using measurements that are still in use as standard measurements today [2,3]
In addition to the data on terp canids, Van Giffen collected a large amount of osteometric data on canids from other contexts, including Danish shellmiddens, Swiss lake dwellings (Pfahlbautensiedlungen), and prehistoric sites from Germany, as well as data on wild and domesticated canids like jackals, wolves, modern domesticated breeds and dogs from Africa

Summary

Introduction

Albert Egges Van Giffen in the context of his archaeological research into the faunal assemblages of the terp (artificial dwelling mound) region of the northern Netherlands (present-day provinces of Friesland and Groningen) (Figure 1), as well as the domestication of dogs. In addition to the data on (domesticated) terp canids, Van Giffen collected a large amount of osteometric data on canids from other contexts, including Danish shellmiddens (kjökkenmödinger), Swiss lake dwellings (Pfahlbautensiedlungen), and prehistoric sites from Germany, as well as data on wild and domesticated canids like jackals, wolves, modern domesticated breeds and dogs from Africa.

Results

Conclusion