Emily Chan
The dog has been man’s best friend for a while, even as far back as the Stone Age when, about 8,400 years ago, a dog was buried alongside a man in a settlement in what is now southern Sweden.
The remains were uncovered in 2020 in a human burial site located near the town of Solvesborg.
The grave that contained the man and his dog was preserved due to a flash flood that resulted from rising sea levels.
The waters swept layers of mud and sand over the site, which kept it protected over time. The settlement was abandoned shortly after the man and his dog were laid to rest.
According to archaeologists, people from this time period were buried with items that were considered valuable or sentimental.
In this case, the dog must have served as a sentimental token, suggesting that the canine was not wild.
“A buried dog somehow shows how similar we are over the millennia when it comes to the feelings like grief and loss,” Carl Persson, the project manager of Sweden’s Blekinge Museum, said. He added that the discovery “makes you feel closer to the people who lived here.”
Both male and female Viking warriors were buried with weapons to indicate their warrior status. In some ancient cultures, the deceased were buried with animal sacrifices to please the gods or safely guide their spirits to the afterlife. Pigs, dogs, sheep, goats, and cattle were often found in ancient burials of the Germanic states.
An animal osteologist examined the dog’s bones from the Swedish site and noted that it was not like any modern breed, but it could be compared to a greyhound.
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