A Dog 4,500 Years Ago

A Dog for the Ages

A forensic artist recently reconstructed the face of a dog that lived around 4,500 years ago from a skull found in the Orkney Islands, off northern Scotland.

The artist used a 3D print from a scan of the animal’s cranium to reveal that the ancient canine resembled a European grey wolf and was the size of a large collie, Sky News reported.

The dog’s remains were found in a burial site called Cuween Hill in 1901. Researchers back then also discovered the remains of eight humans, suggesting that the dog was buried with its owners.

Steve Farrar, a manager with Historic Environment Scotland, which commissioned the reconstruction, said that Neolithic humans treasured their dogs, and trained them as guards and to tend sheep.

He also argued that the burial might have served a ritualistic purpose.

“Maybe dogs were their symbol or totem, perhaps they thought of themselves as the ‘dog people,'” he added.

Judging by the radiocarbon dating, the wolf-like pooch lived during a period when the Orkney Islands were one of the religious and cultural centers of Europe, and when Egyptians started building one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the Great Pyramid of Giza.