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Special pet, special care. Diet, provenance, and health analyses of a dog reveal strong ties with humans in Patagonia

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Abstract

The introduction of the dog in Patagonia is recorded from the Late Holocene. Documents from the nineteenth century indicate that dogs had various utilitarian roles among hunter-gatherers, including hunting aids, protection and war, carrying loads, and as exchange goods. Most of them had no special status, typically subsisting on food scraps and hunting leftovers, were in bad or poor physical and nutritional condition, and suffered physical abuse. Nevertheless, a select few dogs, including those of the hairless variety, received special care and attention from humans. They were in good physical and nutritional condition and appeared to have been used as companion animals of people with prestigious positions. These dogs were regularly provided with cooked food, owned horses, and even were offered sacrificed horses as a form of treatment during their illnesses. Through an interdisciplinary osteobiographical study (phenotype, age, stable isotopes –δ13C, δ15N, δ18O–, microremains of the dental calculus, paleopathology, and entheseal changes), we evaluate whether a dog recovered from a funerary context of Patagonian hunter-gatherers represents the archaeological correlate of a special position animal. The canid exhibited mobility impairments that surely prevented it from hunting large herbivores. Despite this, it was regularly fed meat from human prey and human-made meals containing fruits of Neltuma sp. and underground storage organs. Following its death, the dog was given an individual burial within a mortuary niche located in a dedicated area for human bodies. The results provide evidence that this canid held a special or distinct position, possibly indicating emotional bonds with the hunter-gatherers.

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Notes

  1. Hip dysplasia is a joint disease in the coxofemoral joint. The femoral head loses congruence whit the acetabulum generating bone and functional changes; it develops with the growth of the pelvis and can appear after a few months of life (Morgan 1987; Fries and Remedios 1995).

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Marcelo Gavirati for providing us with Casamiquela’s unpublished manuscript and Daniel Arias from Hospital Escuela-Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias of the Universidad Nacional de La Plata for taking the radiographs. The comments of the two reviewers greatly improved the quality of the manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas (PIP-3204) and Agencia Nacional de Promoción de la Investigación (PICT-2019-04547).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Lucio González Venanzi, Victoria Romano, Daniela Saghessi & Luciano Prates

  2. División Arqueología, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, La Plata, Argentina

    Lucio González Venanzi, Victoria Romano, Daniela Saghessi, Alejandro Serna & Luciano Prates

  3. BioArCh, Department of Archaeology, University of York, York, UK

    Alejandro Serna

  4. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, La Plata, Argentina

    María del Rosario Vercellini

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  1. Lucio González Venanzi
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  2. Victoria Romano
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  6. Luciano Prates
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Contributions

L. G. V. performed general osteological and isotopic studies. V. R. made the paleopathological and entheseal analysis. D. S. and A. S. carried out the archaeobotanical and oxygen stable isotopic analysis, respectively. L. G. V., V. R., D. S., A. S., and L. P. contributed to the conceptualization, discussion, writing, and editing of the work. MRV performed the radiographs and contributed to current clinical knowledge on traumatology to interpret pathologies and functional consequences. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Lucio González Venanzi.

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González Venanzi, L., Romano, V., Saghessi, D. et al. Special pet, special care. Diet, provenance, and health analyses of a dog reveal strong ties with humans in Patagonia. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 15, 168 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-023-01877-3

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