Angelos, without seeing your actual specimens it is possible that the
'rickettsial' changes you have observed are actually the usual
configuration we see in the bandy-legged brachymel dogs; see papers by
Cram and Crockford cited below. As to your other questions, yes there is a
formalised scheme of recording tooth wear on dog mandibles; yes tooth
formation and eruption abnormalities are quite common among domestic dogs,
especially smaller individuals; but no, eruption/formation abnormalities
cannot safely be ascribed to any breed, since we don't even know what the
breeds were or how to define their boundaries. Can't answer as to dog
consumption in prehistoric Europe but can say that dogs were probably
eaten, at least occasionally, perhaps ceremonially, in some Western
European communities in Roman time. Also, it's always possible that the
cut marks you're observing had more to do with skinning to get the leather
or fur than with consumption.
Not to waste your time, but the following is a list of references that I
have learned to consider basic to archaeozoological dog study, with a few
extra references thrown in there on very early dogs because that seems to
be your current interest. Particularly you should get ahold of the
Crockford "Dogs Through Time" BAR volume:
Bartosiewicz László. 2000. Metric variability in Roman period dogs in
Pannonia province and the Barbaricum (Hungary), in S.J. Crockford, ed.,
Dogs Through Time. BAR International Series no. 889, pp. 181-189.
Baxter, Ian L. 2006. A dwarf hound skeleton from a Romano-British grave at
York Road, Leicester, England, U.K., with a discussion of other Roman
small dog types and speculation regarding their respective aetiologies, in
Lynn M. Snyder and Elizabeth A. Moore, eds., Dogs and People in Social,
Working, Economic or Symbolic Interaction. Oxbow Books, Proceedings of the
9th ICAZ Conference, Durham, pp. 12-23.
Benecke, Norbert. 1987. Studies on early dog remains from northern Europe.
Journal of Archaeological Science 14:31-49.
Bennett, Deb. 2005. Bones from the Severan ditch, Area A, 2004, in Andrew
Birley and Justin Blake, eds., Vindolanda Excavations 2003-2004. Research
Reports of the Vindolanda Trust, Hexham, Northumberland, pp. 115-186.
Bökönyi, Sandor. 1975. Vlasac: an early site of dog domestication, in A.T.
Clason, ed., Archaeozoological Studies. American Elsevier Publishing, New
York, pp. 167-178.
Breen, Matthew and Rachel Thomas. 2006. Karyotype and chromosomal
organization, in Elaine A. Ostrander, Urs Geiger, and Kerstin
Lindblad-Toh, eds., The Dog and Its Genotype. Cold Springs Harbor
Laboratory Press, New York, pp. 159-178.
Burleigh, R., Juliet Clutton-Brock, P.J. Felder and G. de G. Sieveking.
1977. A further consideration of Neolithic dogs with special reference to
a skeleton from Grime’s Graves (Norfolk), England. Journal of
Archaeological Science 4:353-366.
Chenal-Velarde, Isabelle. 2006. Food, rituals? The exploitation of dogs
from Eretria (Greece) during the Helladic and Hellenistic Periods, in Lynn
M. Snyder and Elizabeth A. Moore, eds., Dogs and People in Social,
Working, Economic or Symbolic Interaction. Oxbow Books, Proceedings of the
9th ICAZ Conference, Durham, pp. 24-31.
Churcher, C.S. 1993. Dogs from Ein Tirghi Cemetery, Balat, Dakleh Oasis,
Western Desert of Egypt, in: Anneke Clason, Sebastian Payne and Hans-Peter
Uerpmann, eds., Skeletons in Her Cupboard: A Festschrift for Juliet
Clutton-Brock. Oxford Oxbow Monographs no. 34, pp. 39-59.
Clark, Geoffrey. 1997. Osteology of the Kuri Maori: the prehistoric dog of
New Zealand. Journal of Archaeological Science 24: 113-126.
Clutton-Brock, Juliet. 1969. Carnivore remains from the excavations of the
Jericho Tell, in Peter J. Ucko and G.W. Dimbleby, eds., The Domestication
and Exploitation of Plants and Animals. Aldine Publishing, Chicago, pp.
337-345.
Clutton-Brock, Juliet. 1970. The origins of the dog, in Don Brothwell and
Eric Higgs, eds., Science in Archaeology: A Survey of Progress and
Research. Praeger Publishers, New York, pp. 303-309.
Clutton-Brock, Juliet. 1994. Hot dogs: comestible canids in Preclassic
Maya culture at Cuello, Belize. Journal of Archaeological Science
21:819-826.
Clutton-Brock, Juliet. 1995. Origins of the dog: domestication and early
history, in James Serpell, ed., The Domestic Dog: its Evolution, Behavior,
and Interactions with People. Cambridge University Press, New York, pp.
7-20.
Clutton-Brock, Juliet. 1981. Domesticated Animals from Early Times.
British Museum, London, pp. 34-46.
Clutton-Brock, Juliet. 2000a. Introduction, in S.J. Crockford, ed., Dogs
Through Time. BAR International Series no. 889, pp. 3-7.
Cram, Leslie. 2000. Varieties of dog in Roman Britain, in S.J. Crockford,
ed., Dogs Through Time. BAR International Series no. 889, pp. 171-180.
Crockford, Susan J. 2000. Dog evolution: a role for thyroid hormone
physiology in domestication changes, in S.J. Crockford, ed., Dogs Through
Time. BAR International Series no. 889, pp. 11-20.
Crockford, Susan J. 2000. A Commentary on Dog Evolution: Regional
Variation, Breed Development and Hybridisation with Wolves, in S.J.
Crockford, ed., Dogs Through Time. BAR International Series no. 889, pp.
295-312.
Dayan, Tamar. 1994. Early domesticated dogs of the Near East. Journal of
Archaeological Science 21:633-640.
De Grossi Mazzorin, Jacopo, and Claudia Minnitti. 2006. Dog sacrifice in
the ancient world: a ritual passage? in Lynn M. Snyder and Elizabeth A.
Moore, eds., Dogs and People in Social, Working, Economic or Symbolic
Interaction. Oxbow Books, Proceedings of the 9th ICAZ Conference, Durham,
pp. 62-66.
De Grossi Mazzorin, Jacopo, and Antonio Tagliacozzo. 1997. Dog remains in
Italy from the Neolithic to the Roman period. Anthropozoologica (25-26):
429-440.
Drake, A.G. and C.P. Klingenberg. 2010. Large-Scale Diversification of
Skull shape in Domestic Dogs: Disparity and Modularity. The American
Naturalist 175(3): 289-301.
Germonpré, Mietje, Mikhail V. Sablin, Rhiannon E. Stevens, Robert E.M.
Hedges, Michael Hofreiter, Mathias Stiller, and Viviane R. Després. 2009.
Fossil dogs and wolves from Paleolithic sites in Belgium, the Ukraine and
Russia: osteometry, ancient DNA and stable isotopes. Journal of
Archaeological Science 36:473-490.
Goswami, Anjali. 2006. Morphological Integration in the Carnivoran Skull.
Evolution 60(1): 169-183.
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Koop, Ben F., Maryanne Burbidge, Ashley Byun, Ute Rink, and Susan J.
Crockford. 2000. Ancient DNA evidence of a separate origin for North
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dogs descend from Asian wolves; novel theory of domestication. Science (22
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> Dear colleagues,
>
> I am working on an Early Bronze Age assemblage from Greece with a high
> number of well-preserved dog remains. Having limited experience on dog
> bones I have a series of questions on how to record more information from
> dog remains.
> 1) Is there any formalised scheme of recording tooth wear on dog
> mandibles? I was thinking of recording few crude stages of wear on some of
> the mandibular teeth but if there is something used more widely by
> colleagues it might be worth adopting for comparability reasons. Also, I
> understand that tooth wear on dog teeth might not indicate age as reliably
> as in ruminants but still it might be a crude indication of age clusters
> beyond epiphyseal fusion and eruption.
>
> 2) Has anyone noticed dog long bones that exhibit deformations that are
> reminiscent of rickets? I will post fotos in the near future but I am
> referring e.g. to the posterior face of tibia bulging out instead of being
> flatish (i.e. a section would be strongly elliptical in shape) or a
> particularly curved femur.
>
> 3) How common is the absence of the second and/or third molars? Does it
> indicate different breed or is it just occuring randomly in all dog
> populations?
>
> 4) Any references for dog consumption in prehistoric Europe (preferably
> Greece and/or eastern mediterranean)? I am finding extensive cutmarks. I
> have come accross that before in a Neolithic assemblage but not to this
> extent.
>
> Thank you in advance for your help and apologies for the extent of my
> questions.
>
> All the best to all,
> Angelos Hadjikoumis
>
>
>
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