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Hi Jacqui,

There is the infamous case of the poor Salish wool dog in North America, but again, not Neolithic (and more British Columbia than British): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salish_Wool_Dog

Out of curiosity, where was this Neolithic heritage site?

-Ashley

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Ashley Sharpe
Research Archaeologist
Center for Tropical Paleoecology and Archaeology
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute


On Sat, Oct 6, 2018 at 4:44 PM John E Cox <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Didn't the Maoris weave dog hair?  A long way from Neolithic Europe, I know.

John

*****************************************************************

Dr John E Cox FRCVS

16 Cragside View

Rothbury

Northumberland

NE65 7YU

 

01669 620 693

[log in to unmask]

From: Analysis of animal remains from archaeological sites <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Pajx <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: 06 October 2018 21:31
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ZOOARCH] Dog hair textiles
 
Hi Jacqui

I do seem to remember reading something ethnographic about dog hair as a textile...perhaps Native American and/or Arctic. There's spinning and felting. Undercoat hair is best. It would certainly seem potentially as plausible as collecting wild caprid hair, which is also known ethnographically.
It would certainly put an interesting twist on human-dog relations if part of our mutual adoption, humans actually smelled like their dogs...

There are many current sites re felting...

cheers
Pam

Pamela J Cross
Bio/Zooarchaeology
University of Bradford

-----Original Message-----
From: Jacqui Mulville <[log in to unmask]>
To: ZOOARCH <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sat, Oct 6, 2018 11:50 am
Subject: [ZOOARCH] Dog hair textiles

Anyone shed any light on evidence for dog hair textiles in the British (or elsewhere)  Neolithic.  I was asked a question by  a colleague who specialises in experimental archaeology. 

‘A recent visit to a very famous heritage site had a display about Neolithic textiles that wasn't too bad, except that almost half the space was dedicated to the virtues of dog hair in Neolithic clothing. 

A selection of sewing materials were shown, including flax, leather, human hair and dog hair (no sinew oddly), woven textiles were represented by grass, nettle, flax, and what they described as 'knotted' dog hair, in the form of a large scarf like textile (though I'd swear it was crochet, which is another discussion altogether and we don't need to go in to it here), and in the panel on 'useful animals for clothing', it referenced skins, the emergence of woolly sheep, and yet more dog hair. A book in the gift shop that appeared to be related to the site also stressed how 'people would have worn knotted dog hair'.  

Now, I know that there is a Danish site with evidence of skinned dogs, and I have no arguments with the principal that dog skin might realistically be utilised as leather or fur, but everything I've ever read has given me no indication that we think that spun/corded dog hair was a common element of Neolithic clothing or textiles. Is anyone aware of any evidence to the contrary? This display was so insistent, that my impression was that the original designer had a pet thing about dog hair, but it doesn't fit my reading of the evidence for prehistoric textiles.’

So any thoughts? 
Thanks

Jacqui Mulville
Director of Research and Impact
School of History, Archaeology and Religion
Ysgol Hanes, Archaeoleg a Chrefydd
Professor of Bioarchaeology & Guerilla Archaeologist


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