Archaeologists have found the skeleton of a dog next to a bone dagger at the bottom of a bog in Sweden. The remains are believed to be around 5,000 years old and may be found in a mysterious location. Stone Age ritual.
The unique dog burial was discovered during the construction of a high-speed railway in the village of Gerstaberg, about 22 miles (35 kilometers) southwest of Stockholm. The discovery was reported by experts from the Swedish group Arkeologerna (Archaeologists). statement And blog post Monday (December 15).
But the skeleton of the dog and the dagger that was nearby surprised archaeologists.
“It's very unusual to find an intact dog from this period, but the fact that it was also buried with a bone dagger is almost unique,” Linus Hagberg– Arkeologerna project manager says in a translated statement.
Although the exact breed of the dog is not yet known, it was a large and strong male, between 3 and 6 years of age, about 20 inches (52 centimeters) tall. The dog was placed in a leather bag filled with rocks to submerge it to a depth of about 5 feet (1.5 m).
“This is a well-known phenomenon dogs were used in ritual activities during this period,” Hagberg said.
Directly next to the dog's skeleton, archaeologists found a well-preserved 10-inch (25 cm) long dagger made from elk or red deer bone. According to a blog post by Arkeologerna, “daggers of this type should be considered a symbolically charged object,” and other examples have been discovered in damp and boggy areas of Stone Age Sweden.
The dog and dagger appear to have been thrown into the lake at the same time, suggesting that ancient fishermen who lived in the area 5,000 years ago buried them in some kind of ceremonial act, the blog post said.
According to Hagberg, additional work will be carried out on the remains, including radiocarbon dating And DNA analysis to confirm the antiquity of the find and learn more about the dog and its owners.
“For example, we can see when the dog lived, its age and what it ate,” Hagberg said. “The dog's life history, in turn, can tell us more about how the people who owned the dog lived and ate.”
