Was the Dog Locally Domesticated in the Danube Gorges? Morphometric Study of Dog Cranial Remains From Four Mesolithic-Early Neolithic Archaeological Sites by Comparison With Contemporary Wolves

Abstract

In this article, we test a hypothesis about local dog domestication in the Danube Gorges of the central Balkans in the course of the Mesolithic period. Morphometric features of dog mandibles and teeth from Mesolithic-Early Neolithic sites of Vlasac, Padina, Lepenski Vir, and Hajduka Vodenica have been analysed and compared with recent wolves from the central Balkans. Decrease in size and changes in proportions of dog's dental features were tracked diachronically. We identified specimens which manifested mixed wolf/dog features. Such specimens originate from the Early Mesolithic contexts, the time when a decrease in size began. On the basis of this pattern, we suggest that dog domestication may have taken place in the Danube Gorges during the Early Mesolithic (ca 9500-7500cal. bc). The reduction of size continued throughout Late Mesolithic (ca 7500-6300cal. bc), but there were still individuals that might be regarded as transitional' in comparison with wolves on account of their size, and a distinct difference in size between wolves and dogs did not develop. Accordingly, if local domestication was in progress here, the domestication process might have lasted for more than just few generations and even several millennia.