E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
PLoS ONE
These three graves from the Middle Epipalaeolithic cemetery of 'Uyun al-Hammam in Jordan are from the earliest known cemetery in the Middle East, if not the world.
A 16,500-year-old cemetery with human remains — buried alongside those of a red fox — suggests humans may have had a soft spot for the animals well before dogs became man's best friend.
The site at 'Uyun al-Hammam in northern Jordan is the earliest known formal burial ground in the Middle East, pre-dating other cemeteries in the region by a few millennia, scientists from Canada and the UK report in a new study published in PLoS ONE.
"This may be the earliest known cemetery period," Edward Banning, an anthropologist at the University of Toronto who is leading the excavations, told me today. "It probably depends on what you mean by cemetery."
The site is certainly the earliest known in the Middle East where people were repeatedly buried with grave goods such as mortars and pestles, a bone spoon, animal parts and red ochre, an iron mineral commonly sprinkled on bodies in prehistoric times, Banning noted.
Fox finds
Beyond the site's age, the researchers were intrigued by the presence of a red fox that was used in two burials. "This whole thing was buried with one person and then later on part of that fox is removed from that burial and put in another burial," Banning said.
The graves also have bones of other animals, but only the fox bones were treated in the same way as the humans. Both, for example, were sprinkled with red ochre. And in the original burial, the fox was completely interred, not just parts as is often the case with food offerings.
Banning cautioned that the significance of the fox can't be known for sure, but given strong similarities to the way dogs were treated in Natufian burials a few thousand years later, a pet-like analogy rises to the surface.
"It is tempting to think they thought of the fox as more or less equivalent to the dog in some way, because we tend to think of dogs at least eventually becoming man's best friend and pets," Banning said.
The connection isn't too great of a stretch, he added. Both dogs and foxes are canines, for one, and researchers know that foxes, while skittish and timid, can be tamed. What's more, early domesticated dogs in the Middle East were about the same size as the red fox.
"It would not be terribly surprising that they tamed foxes at least occasionally, it's just there is no way for us to prove it was tamed," he said.
Social complexity
The cemetery finding also indicates that elaborate mortuary rituals took place much earlier than previously believed and in cultures that were clearly nomadic hunter-gatherers. "It suggests that farming wasn't necessary to have that kind of level of social complexity," Banning said.
Though the people at 'Uyun al-Hammam were nomadic, the cemetery indicates ties to particular places in the landscape. The living space around the cemetery was a well-used campsite.
"Maybe because they associated it with their ancestors, it became their burial place. As they moved around this landscape, they kept coming back there to bury their dead. That's kind of interesting too, because it suggests a territoriality that is difficult to document earlier than this," he said.
More stories on early Middle East culture:
- Beer may have lubricated the rise of civilization
- Scientists pinpoint origins of little dogs
- Ancient Nubians drank beer laced with antibiotics
- Headless skeletons found in ancient grave
John Roach is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by hitting the "like" button on the Cosmic Log Facebook page or following msnbc.com's science editor, Alan Boyle, on Twitter (@b0yle).
Leave a Comment:
This is a beautiful glimpse into the human condition. Our fear of death, our longing to take "life" with us, and the all-important ritualistic behavior of ceremony that is found in all of us.
If only we could unite as a species and realize these are common denominators found within humanity ... not faith, social position, or trivial aspects and definitions of "what we think we know."
Great article. I agree completely. Great comment.
Some of the "faith" people you mention won't be too thrilled with this. 16,500 years ago is over 10,000 years more than the Bible allows for - given that the complete lineage from Adam to Joseph (Mary's husband, the not-father of Jesus) is in there, and it's gives Adam's age when he had the kid relevant to that lineage.
the more people i meet the more i love my dog
cant imagine life without my dogs,a good book,or a garden to tend. i am sure humans had dogs not just for companions but they would keep them warm and alert them to danger
A fox smells as much as much as a skunk. I captured a kit fox one time and tried to domesticate it. It jumped around and foamed at the mouth. I really doubt if these ancient people kept them as pets.
I don't think that it had to sleep in the bed with them to be considered a "pet", or domesticated. You're right about foxes being smelly. My grandad ran foxes most of his life with Walker hounds, and kept some around that he bred and released. There was always one or two that were tamed enough to come back around the house and visit from time to time, much to the chagrin of the penned dogs. They wouldn't let us pet them or anything of course, but they walked around fairly brazenly, knowing that we were watching them, and paying us no mind. I have only ever seen one wild fox that wasn't already looking at me, focused on me, when I first glimpsed it. These "tame" foxes behaved much differently.
Anyway, I think your premise is BS, and I think that having a fox around the camp that eats your scraps and naps in sight of you definitely qualifies as domestication and its being a pet. I remember videos of that weirdo that bears ate playing fetch with a fox that came to his camp a lot. If it wasn't a pet, then I'm not sure what you'd call it.
So your one experience dictates that no one else could have had a different exprience regarding the raising of foxes?
Interesting article. The more we learn about ancient peoples, the more we see ourselves in them.
Human remains buried with those of a red fox? In "The Flintstones" cartoon, Wilma and Betty sometimes wore live foxes draped over their shoulders. Bet that's it.
It's amazing how much we've learned about our ancient past in just these few years. I'm hoping that we are not discovering our brilliant past just in time to be obliterated by our dismal present.
Well said.
I can't for the life of me understand how we've gotten this far ... seem to have limitless potential ... yet, the further we go, the more and more we seem destined to destroy ourselves. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a pessimist. But the odds for human flourishing do seem to be dwindling. For every 1 person out there pushing reason, science, progress and passion. There seems to be 500 pushing tradition, superstition and using the word "intellectual" and "elite" as if they are dirty words. It just doesn't make sense .... and how could something so obtuse?
No Wendigos, I hope? And nothing looks like it dug itself out of its grave... right?...RIGHT?? Well, at least it's not near a highway.
Maybe obtuse is the route. It has been said that for one to lead, they must first learn how to be servant of others. We are not that far out of the Caves from whence we came, speaking on a strictly intellectual level, har, har, har. Elite is not a dirty word, but one of apart. Interesting !!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks "chad"
"Consciously or unconsciously, every one of us does render some service or other. If we cultivate the habit of doing this service deliberately, our desire for service will steadily grow stronger, and will make, not only our own happiness, but that of the world at large."
-- Gandhi
I know it is is interesting to learn about human history but can we never leave any grave alone. I know they are just bones but will we all be dug up at some point in the future? They love finding graves of some early settlers in America and have no problems saving bones of Native Americans. Is 100 years long enough before we dig people up and display their remains? I say let them rest in peace.
interesting find. another point of view on burying of dead would be so scavenger animals don't eat the body of the dead. can't always assume it is a religious custom, even though belief in an afterlife seems to be universal. but it seems the abraham religions are more of a control mechanism than anything else. as we acquire more knowledge through science & better technology, religion seems more & more quaint and silly. for those that believe nonbelievers have no moral compass or nothing to live for, what nonsense. when you aren't worried about going to hell 24 hours a day, it's very liberating. stephen hawkins is one of the most brilliant people alive, however it looks like space travel will never become a reality, since leadership here on earth has so many that cannot even accept the reality of climate change or evolution as a fact of life. when you have such dense people in positions of great power, nuclear war or more likely destruction of our air, water, soil and species depletion is just a question of time.