Recent DNA testing on a long ignored jawbone fragment has opened a viewpoint on the distant past to when and how animal companions began to alter the everyday lives of human communities. Join Chris as she explores this new research and wonders, on the way, what ‘pet’ names might they have chosen!
I will be following up this ramble with one exploring animal companions in early Irish stories.
If you would rather read than listen, a transcript is available for this episode.
Links for this episode
- Listen to Chris’ Ramble 21: Sheebeg and Other Cairns
- Dogs were widely distributed across western Eurasia during the Palaeolithic: Lead Author: William Marsh. Published in ‘Nature’ in March 2026. Direct link to the paper.
- Read the article from the Natural History Museum UK
- National Geograophic article on the earliest images of domestic dogs
- Scavenger and Sentry:The Roles of Dogs at Çatalhöyük. Author: Nerrissa Russell
- Ancient_Felines_and_the_Great_Goddess. I haven’t fully read this yet but include it as it might be of interest.
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