How deep is your connection with your dog? For many, it feels like a bond that’s been with us forever—almost as if it’s part of our shared history. Science seems to agree, with new evidence suggesting that humans and dogs have been connected for over 12,000 years. A recent study led by Francois Lanoe, a researcher at the University of Arizona, offers fresh insight into this ancient companionship.
According to a study published in ‘Science Advances’, the relationship between humans and the ancestors of today’s dogs began much earlier than we had thought, at 12,000 years ago. “We now have evidence that canids and people had close relationships earlier than we knew they did in the Americas,” said Lanoe, an assistant research professor at the University of Arizona.
When research first began in 2018, Lanoe and his team ventured to the archaeological site in Alaska known as Swan Point, located 70 miles southeast of Fairbanks. There, they found an ancient canine tibia. The tibia was carbon-dated to be around 12,000 years old. Then, in June 2023, the team unearthed another interesting find: a 8,100-year-old dog jawbone at Hollembaek Hill, a site near Delta Junction. These findings suggest the possibility of early domestication, hinting at a deep connection between humans and these animals.
Further analysis of the bones revealed that they had an intake of fishy proteins. The outcome came as a surprise to everyone since wild canines that existed around this region would usually go hunting after land animals. This means their diet had significantly changed as part of the influence they experienced from man.
This is the smoking gun because they’re not really hunting salmon in the wild,” said Ben Potter, a co-author of the study and archaeologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The findings strongly suggest that these canines relied on humans for food-an indication of their closeness.
Although the Swan Point dog cannot be considered yet the first dog domesticated in the Americas, it offers crucial leads about the long history that humans and dogs share.
For the Indigenous peoples, such as in Healy Lake, such finds give validity to their cultural belief of a special, almost mythical relationship between people and their dogs. “I like that in the record, however long ago, it is a repeatable cultural experience that I have this relationship and this level of love with my dog,” said Combs, a Healy Lake resident. “I know that throughout history, these relationships have always been present.”. I think it’s wonderful we can look at this record and see that thousands of years ago, we still had our companions,” she added.
So the next time your dog greets you with unbridled joy, remember: this bond is not only unique; it’s ancient.
