Dog size and variability in the Late Eneolithic: Drilled teeth from Corded Ware graves in Bohemia

Abstract

The hundreds of drilled dog teeth—mainly incisors and canines—found as ornaments in the graves of women and children from the Corded Ware culture in Bohemia, Czech Republic, provide a unique opportunity for biometric investigation. Large series of teeth often found in a single burial set enable consideration of variability in intra‐site dog size, which in contrast to many later cultures/periods appears to be surprisingly low, probably due to random inter‐breeding. The dogs in this Late Eneolithic (Copper Age) culture must have been relatively small: Their teeth are comparable with those of present‐day medium‐sized breeds, such as Fox Terrier, Cocker Spaniel and Standard Schnauzer, which are usually 35–50 cm high at the withers. Also discussed here are the placing of Corded Ware dogs in the context of other cultures, possible inter‐grave and inter‐culture differences, and the young age of the dogs whose teeth were used in the ornaments.

Drilled dog canine ornaments from a special Late Copper Age grave

“…The dog finds brought to light from the burials and prehistoric settlements of Central Europe and the western fringes of the Carpathian Basin are assigned to two main types. Small-and mediumsized turbary dogs were the most widespread (Bökönyi 1974: 320;Bartosiewicz 2002;Kyselý 2021). For example, several remains of this type with an average withers height of 45 cm were brought to light from the Baden occupation of the Late Copper Age settlement at Balatonőszöd-Temetői-dűlő, while the medium-sized "ancient sheepdogs" with a height of 62.1 cm and an average withers height of 53.2 cm (C. f. matris optimae Jeitteles, 1877), known from both the Boleráz and the Baden period (Vörös 2013), could also be used as hunting dogs (Bökönyi 1974: 318).…”

“…There is a general scholarly consensus that these small-and medium-sized dogs were unsuitable for military purposes, for hunting big game or for protecting herds from large-bodied predators such as wolves and bears, and that they were too big to be cuddled as lap-dogs. However, as predators and scavengers, as well as owing to their pack mentality, they were useful for waste disposal, for guarding the settlement (barking), for herding domesticates and during hunts (for catching small game, as well as for sniffing out, chasing and rounding up big game) (Bartosiewicz 2002;Kyselý 2021).…”