Хүрэл зэвсгийн үеийн барилгын материалаас олдсон энэхүү ул мөр нь тухайн үеийн хүн болон нохойн харилцааны талаарх сонирхолтой баримт болж байна.
Туркийн баруун хэсэгт орших Тавшанлы Хөйүк (Tavşanlı Höyük) археологийн дурсгалт газарт хийж буй малтлагын явцад 4000 жилийн настай шавар тоосгоноос нохойн сарвууны мөр илэрчээ. Энэхүү тоосго нь гал түймэрт өртөж нурсан эртний байшингийн хананы нэг хэсэг байсан бөгөөд тухайн үед шаврыг хатаах явцад нохой гишгэж ул мөрөө үлдээсэн гэж судлаачид үзэж байна.
Тус малтлагыг удирдаж буй профессор Эркан Фиданы тайлбарласнаар, хүрэл зэвсгийн үед ноход Анатолийн хот суурин газрын амьдралын салшгүй нэг хэсэг болсон байжээ. Хэдийгээр тухайн нохойг орчин үеийн утгаар нь гэрийн тэжээвэр амьтан байсан эсэхийг батлах боломжгүй ч, энэхүү олдвор нь эртний хүмүүс болон нохойн хоорондын харилцааг харуулсан шууд бөгөөд тод баримт болж байна.
Анатолийн бүс нутагт нохой, хүний урт хугацааны түүхэн холбоог гэрчлэх олон нотолгоо бий. Тухайлбал, Пынарбашы (Pınarbaşı) гэх газарт 15,800 жилийн өмнөх генетикийн хувьд нотлогдсон хамгийн эртний гэрийн нохдын үлдэгдлийг илрүүлсэн бөгөөд тэдгээрийг хүмүүстэй хамт оршуулсан байсан нь тэднийг зөвхөн ан агнуур, хамгаалалтад ашиглахаас гадна нөхөрлөлийн зориулалтаар үнэлдэг байсныг илтгэдэг.
Дэлхийн өнцөг булан бүрээс, ялангуяа Евразийн бүс нутгаас нохой гаршуулсан үеийн ул мөрүүд олдсоор байгаа ч нохойг хэзээ, хаана анх гаршуулсан нь тодорхойгүй хэвээр байна. Эрдэмтдийн таамаглаж буйгаар энэ үйл явц сүүлийн 40,000 жилийн хугацаанд дэлхийн өөр өөр байршилд, хэд хэдэн удаа тохиолдсон байх магадлалтай юм.
“Dogs have a very long history in Anatolia,” he said. “By the Bronze Age, dogs were already a familiar part of everyday life in Anatolian settlements.” He described the roughly 4,000-year-old paw prints as a “particularly direct and touching glimpse of this relationship.”
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
Archaeologists in western Turkey have found a 4,000-year-old mudbrick stamped with a dog’s paw print. It came from a house wall that collapsed in a fire at Tavşanlı Höyük, and it gives a small snapshot of dogs and people living alongside one another in Bronze Age Anatolia.
Empires fall and leaders come and go, but humankind’s appreciation of dogs rarely strays. The brick turned up during ongoing excavations at Tavşanlı Höyük, a sprawling hilltop settlement first built around 8,000 years ago in what is now western Turkey.
Elsewhere in Turkey, dogs from the Neolithic period have been found buried alongside humans, so we know they were a familiar sight in settlements of the time.
The Day a Dog Stepped on Clay
The print was found embossed on a mudbrick that formed part of a house wall. That wall collapsed around 4,000 years ago during a fire. As explained by the search team, it seems that a wandering dog stepped on the brick while it was drying in a mold, leaving behind a faint trace of everyday life. Professor Dr Erkan Fidan, director of the excavations at Tavşanlı Höyük, spoke to IFLScience about the find. According to him:
“Dogs have a very long history in Anatolia,” he said. “By the Bronze Age, dogs were already a familiar part of everyday life in Anatolian settlements.” He described the roughly 4,000-year-old paw prints as a “particularly direct and touching glimpse of this relationship.”
He was careful about what the brick can prove, though. We cannot determine whether this particular dog was kept as a pet in the modern sense, he said, but the discovery still offers a small yet remarkable connection to everyday life four millennia ago.
Anatolia’s Long History With Dogs
Fidan placed the find within a much older regional story. A study published earlier this year in the journal Nature identified some of the world’s oldest genetically confirmed domestic dogs at a site called Pınarbaşı, in modern-day Türkiye.These dogs date back roughly 15,800 years. As noted in a translated post, this highlights the long and rich relationship between dogs and people in this part of the world.
He found the evidence especially interesting because puppies were deliberately buried at Pınarbaşı, which suggests a close relationship between humans and dogs. At nearby Boncuklu, dating to the early Neolithic period, dogs were also buried with humans. Such discoveries, he continued, indicate dogs were not simply used for hunting or protection but may also have been valued as companions.
Older Prints Across the Mediterranean
Anatolia is not the only place where early traces of dogs have turned up. Scientists don’t have a direct date for when or where dogs were first domesticated. It happened at some point during the past 40,000 years, likely in multiple locations and at several separate times. Early suggestions of the relationship can be found across the world, but especially around parts of Eurasia.
On the other side of the Mediterranean, archeologists have uncovered even older dog paw prints at a cave in northwest Italy. The canids were seemingly domesticated, but the setting was decidedly less domestic. The researchers explained that the paw marks overlay human foot impressions, as if a dog and a troop of people had made a daring venture together into the dimly lit cavern.
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