Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio, Hey
Speaker 1: Rain Stuff Lauren boglebom here with another classic episode. When
Speaker 1: this one first came out, research had just been published
Speaker 1: showing the keeping dogs as pets, leashes and everything is
Speaker 1: a practice way older than anyone previously suspected. Welcome to
Speaker 1: brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey brain Stuff, Lauren
Speaker 1: bogobom here, Your dog might not like being on a leash.
Speaker 1: He loves walks, of course, but could it be his
Speaker 1: glances are sometimes a touch reproachful. As he gazes at
Speaker 1: you over the pile of leaves he's snuffling. The look
Speaker 1: might be saying, I am hurt by your distrust your ancestors.
Speaker 1: Let my ancestors roam free and now here I a
Speaker 1: noble beast and chained. If your dog lays that one
Speaker 1: on you, your best recourse is to show him the
Speaker 1: world's oldest known dog art. Ancient humans may have been primitive,
Speaker 1: but even nine years ago they seem to have been
Speaker 1: wise to the ways of the canine. A study published
Speaker 1: in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology in November seventeen describes
Speaker 1: recently discovered rock carvings in the northwestern region of the
Speaker 1: Saudi Arabian Desert. They illustrate prehistoric hunting practices using dogs
Speaker 1: as assistants. The depicted dogs look much like modern Canan dogs,
Speaker 1: with erect ears, long feathery tails, and short snouts. Each
Speaker 1: one has a distinctive coat pattern, suggesting the artists knew
Speaker 1: the dogs personally and similar to modern dogs. Two are
Speaker 1: shown tethered to the waste of a human hunter. The
Speaker 1: engravings were discovered as part of a project led by
Speaker 1: a research team from the Max Planck Institute for the
Speaker 1: Science of Human History in partnership with the Saudi Commission
Speaker 1: for Tourism and National Heritage. Over one thousand, four hundred
Speaker 1: rock art panels showing almost seven thousand animals, ranging from
Speaker 1: lions and leopards to gazelle and wild donkeys, have been
Speaker 1: found during the studies three year run, but these dogs
Speaker 1: might be the most exciting find because they give us
Speaker 1: clues to when and why dogs were domesticated by humans.
Speaker 1: It is very difficult to date rock engravings, but the
Speaker 1: research team estimated these to be around nine thousand years old,
Speaker 1: making them probably the oldest depictions of human dog interactions
Speaker 1: ever found. Even if they're overshooting their estimate the next
Speaker 1: oldest dog art would be on some Iranian pottery that's
Speaker 1: about eight thousand years old. These newly found drawings certainly
Speaker 1: are the oldest depiction of a leashes. Before this find,
Speaker 1: the oldest art showing restrained dogs was from a five thousand,
Speaker 1: five hundred year old Egyptian wall painting. Although this rock
Speaker 1: art gives us a better sense of how humans interacted
Speaker 1: with dogs during this time, it's possible that dogs were
Speaker 1: domesticated much earlier, possibly between fifteen thousand and thirty thousand
Speaker 1: years ago, and the domestication process may have happened more
Speaker 1: than once. It's not known whether the leashes in these
Speaker 1: rock art panels are literal or symbolic, but it certainly
Speaker 1: suggests that these Holocene hunters had a lot of control
Speaker 1: over their dogs, that some dogs could have been more
Speaker 1: valuable than others and therefore kept closer, and that the
Speaker 1: people likely bred and trained these prehistoric pooches. Today's episode
Speaker 1: was written by Jesslyn Shields and produced by Tristan McNeil
Speaker 1: and Tyler Clang. For more in this lots of other topics,
Speaker 1: visit House to Forks dot com. Brainstuff is production of
Speaker 1: I Heart radio or more podcasts My heart Radio, visit
Speaker 1: the i heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.