A new discovery determines when dogs became permanent companions to humans.

A recent study revealed that humans domesticated dogs thousands of years earlier than previously thought.
New analyses of dog bones in Alaska have shown that the relationship between humans and dogs dates back much earlier than previously thought, around 10,000 BC.

Researchers from the University of Arizona studied a leg bone belonging to an adult dog the size of a wolf, which was found at an archaeological site called Swan Point, located southeast of Fairbanks, Alaska. This bone dates back to around 12,000 years ago, indicating that dogs were domesticated before the end of the Ice Age.

This discovery is considered one of the most important pieces of evidence of early relationships between humans and dogs in the Americas.

The bones that were analyzed contained traces of salmon proteins, indicating that the dogs regularly ate the fish caught by humans, which is a strong sign of their domestication. This is an unexpected discovery, as dogs at that time typically hunted wild animals, which supports the hypothesis that humans were feeding dogs fish.
A dog jawbone estimated to be 8,100 years old was also found at the Holimback Hill site near Delta Junction, providing further evidence of domesticated dogs in human settlements during that period.

François Lanoë, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Arizona and the lead author of the study, explained: “The search for the settlement of the Americas has intrigued us to know whether the first Americans brought dogs with them, and these discoveries finally provide the physical evidence for that.”

Ben Potter, an archaeologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and a co-author of the study, said: “This is conclusive evidence that dogs were not hunting salmon in the wild but were feeding on the fish that humans were catching.”

Despite the significance of these discoveries, researchers pointed out that the evidence is still insufficient to determine an accurate timeline for the domestication of dogs.

Potter said, “The existential question is: What is a dog?” explaining that these dogs, which ate salmon, might be closer to domesticated wolves than to modern dogs.