7 ms·
Remains of Chihuahua-Sized Dog Unearthed at Roman Britain Villa
- optimalsolver 3y agoSo a puppy? >This, along with the fact that she might have even been buried with her owner, makes it far more likely that she was kept as a house dog Based on certain details we're lacking, this is either heartwarming or disturbing.
- huthuthike 3y agoI would have liked to see the article address this. I think it is pretty easy for an osteologist to tell if a mammal is mature based on the fusion of the long bones, but I'd be interested to hear more.
- zgluck 3y agoSeems like this is a rewrite of https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/22/oxfordshire-roman-pet-dog-remains-found-clumps/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/22/oxfordshire-roma... (which, to be fair was linked to towards the end, although not as prominently as it should have been) with some added color and removed details. It was not a puppy according to this quote from the Telegraph article: Maiya Pina-Dacier, an archaeologist with DigVentures, said that this dog was fully grown when it died and so tiny, it must have been “adorable”: “In previous periods, you don’t get evidence of pets like this. But, when the Romans arrive, you start finding signs of smaller dogs.”
- WaitWaitWha 3y ago> Breeding tiny dogs as pets “seems to be a Roman phenomenon that I suspect ties in with conspicuous consumption by the elite and other attempts at wealth and showiness,” ... I am not sure this is the only path for dogs to be "tiny". In nature, animal divergence based on environment can and does occur quite frequently. I can easily see dogs specialize in hunting for specific food sources and over generations adjust to be better hunters.
- mcpackieh 3y agoYeah that seems like a politically motivated conclusion. Most of the modern small dog breeds were originally bred to do things like hunt badgers in small burrows. It was probably so in the past as well, even if those reasons have been lost to time.
- rsynnott 3y ago> politically motivated conclusion I... think the relevant politics are a bit obsolete.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- mcpackieh 3y agoI think the archaeologist's conclusion is motivated by resentment of the 'elite'. He finds a small dog skeleton and concludes that it's evidence of elites flexing on plebs. This interpretation of the evidence is motivated by his personal political feelings.
- rsynnott 3y agoEh... seems like a bit of a stretch; it's 1800 years ago, and the fact that wealthy Romans in the 3rd century tended to be a bit on the comically decadent side isn't exactly news. However, this would have been something of a political issue _at the time_; there is absolutely _nothing_ that Romans loved so much as moaning about other Romans being decadent. Arguably, if this was common practice, we might expect to documentary evidence in such moaning-oriented writings. :)
- kragen 3y agosmithsonian on this discovery: > The tiny pup was likely a beloved pet, not an animal bred for hunting or herding uhh those aren't the only three possibilities tho wikipedia on the history of actual chihuahuas: > In a letter written in 1520, Hernan Cortés wrote that the Aztecs raised and sold little dogs as food. and in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xoloitzcuintle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xoloitzcuintle: > Sixteenth-century Spanish accounts tell of large numbers of dogs being served at banquets.[5] Aztec merchant feasts could have 80–100 turkeys and 20–40 dogs served as food.[6] how would you distinguish beloved pets from food animals? well, plausibly by quantity, or by the form of burial. perhaps the villa only had one or two lap dogs? > The pint-sized pup is one of 15 small- to medium-sized dogs discovered at the villa. uhh eww
- whythre 3y agoEww? Lots of nobles kept kennels.
- tokai 3y agoI think kragen is joking that with amount of dogs found one could just as well argue that the dogs were livestock and not pets.
- notjulianjaynes 3y agoThe illustration in the article looks a bit like a turnspit dog too. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnspit_dog https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnspit_dog
- tokai 3y agoI don't get saying that is has legs and body like a dachshund and then conclude that its not the body of a hunting dog. Dachhunds whole layout is how it is to facilitate hunting.
- PNewling 3y agoHuh, I had no idea they were originally a hunting dog. From this very bias source, but has a decent amount of information: https://www.dachshundstation.com/hunting-dachshunds/ https://www.dachshundstation.com/hunting-dachshunds/
- dnstalk 3y ago> Dachshunds are extremely intelligent dogs who are brave and tough in the face of danger. They had to be, in order to win a battle with a fierce badger. You need a several Dachshunds to take out a badger. Some will probably die during the hunt. Badgers are larger and have much bigger teeth and huge claws. What is that tiny dog's face going to be able to do? They also used to arrange fights to bet on called Badger Baiting...
- timbit42 3y agoMany of the small dog breeds were bred for killing rodents and other small critters around homes, castles, factories, etc.
- dabluecaboose 3y agoI don't get saying it has the legs and body like a dachshund and then saying it's "Chihuahua-sized" Why not just say "Dachshund-like"?
- bch 3y agoA large boulder the size of a small boulder…
- joker_minmax 3y agoThe picture absolutely looks Dachsund-like. Why it would be compared to a Chihuahua is beyond me. Maybe Chihuahua in Rome is better clickbait because everyone knows Dachshunds are from Europe already.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]