Professor Butter Beard and Ancient Canine Cave Rock Art
“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.” – Will Rogers, American vaudeville performer, actor, and humorous social commentator.
“We sure talk about Nellie, yes we do!” And Bruno. And Seamus. I know that with all my soul, I am a dog parent. Although, I often wonder who really is the parent in our relationship. Bruno was my canine companion for eighteen years (Seamus for ten), and when we said “goodnight for now,” I thought I could move forward on my own. It wasn’t two months before Nellie’s journey called out to mine. Rescued from a heroin house at just one year old, Nellie arrived with her hypnotizing brown eyes looking directly into mine and claiming me immediately as hers. Her antics amuse me, challenge me, annoy me and feed me, and I fully comprehend that she experiences the same in return. We are a team, sometimes Lucy and Ethel, sometimes Bonnie and Clyde, but mostly Michael and Nellie.
Robert Losey, a professor at the University of Alberta, is an expert on ancient relationships between humans and animals, particularly with dogs. He's found evidence of 10,000-year-old dog remains in Siberia, but he is unsure of the exact role these dogs played. “The remains,” he reports, “were deliberately buried, with the skeletons fully intact—meaning they likely wouldn't have been a food source.” He goes on to say, “There's been ethnographic work showing being aided by dogs greatly improved the productivity of hunting.” His hunch is that dog domestication coincided with, or was aided by, humans who benefitted from hunting with their like-minded canines.
For the past three years, Maria Guagnin, an archaeologist at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, has been working to catalogue fourteen hundred rock art panels at Shuwaymis and Jubbah, two archaeological sites in northwestern Saudi Arabia. Some seven thousand of the panels' carvings depict interactions between humans and animals, including numerous livestock and at least four hundred dogs.
Many of the carved dogs are shown biting the necks and the belly of ibex, as well as the necks of gazelles. Other scenes depict dogs surrounding an equid and its young, setting on the younger animal and biting its neck. Meanwhile, the accompanying humans are shown bearing weapons that look like bows and spears with their alert dogs tethered to their masters’ waists, suggesting that they are leashed. The dogs are curly-tailed, medium-sized, with pricked ears, short snouts and a deeply angled chest. They resemble, the researchers report, the modern Canaan breed of dog.
These hunting scenes are engraved onto the cliffsides protruding from the dry, arid desert covering the northern region of present-day Saudi Arabia. A team of National Geographic researchers think it may be the earliest depiction of domesticated dogs ever documented—although other experts aren't yet convinced of that fact. "The problem with engravings is there is no reliable method to date them directly," explained Maria Guagnin. To reach a rough estimate, researchers analyzed the weathered rock surrounding the site, and the contents of what's depicted in the engravings.
Guagnin noted in her study that the level of detail used to depict the dogs indicates the artist or artists may have had a close bond with the animals. Although none of the researchers yet agree on dating the art, they all agree that the artistry confirms strong developing bonds between the humans and the canines. “What strikes me about the rock art is the degree of detail. The different markings of the dogs, the common shoulder stripe, the white spots. The level of artistic reality and detail is really remarkable,” writes Melinda Zeder, an archaeozoologist from the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of Natural History. “It's like a graphic novel,” she continues. “These images put flesh on the bones.”
Speaking of putting some flesh on the bones, Nellie is looking at me now knowing that the biscuits I just baked for her are ready and waiting! I have adapted Elisa Marshall’s original recipe to include two of Nellie’s favorites: peanut butter and bananas. The wheat germ is a great source of omega-3 fatty acids which will help support your best friend’s immune system and give them an enviable shiny coat. I will add that if your pup has any wheat allergies, this might not be the best treat for them. But for Nellie, this is heaven in a bite. And believe me, dogs do smile.
Detail and enhancement of the cave art in Saudi Arabia.
Peanut Butter and Banana Dog Biscuits
Makes 48 treats
2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup wheat germ
1 cup all-natural smooth peanut butter
1 large egg
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
¾ cup banana chips (I like the freeze-dried version), crumbled
1 cup room temperature water
1) Line two baking sheets with parchment. Heat your oven to 350 degrees.
2) In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour and the ¾ cup wheat germ.
3) In a standing mixer with the paddle, mix together the peanut butter, the egg and the 2 Tbsp vegetable oil.
4) Add the flour/wheat germ and the crumbled banana chips. The chips will further break down and the dough will appear very crumbly.
5) Add the one cup room temperature water and mix until the dough comes together as a smooth mass.
6) Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide the dough into half. Roll each half into a thickness of ½” and cut into desired shapes. I use a 1 ½’ heart cutter which will yield 48 treats. Cut the dough with the cutter and place the biscuits on the parchment pan, 24 per pan. Re-gather the dough and continue to cut the shapes until all the dough is used.
7) Bake the biscuits for 30 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through. Turn the oven off and leave the biscuits in the oven for 1-2 hours to completely dry out. Then let them cool completely on a wire rack – out of reach of your hound!
