Ancient World Review

Domestication Of Wild Boars Changed Them From "Long-distance Runners" Into "Bodybuilders"

If capturing wild pigs is dangerous today, think about what it must have been like back in the Stone Age.

"Using the wild boar as a model, a team of scientists have shown that a life spent in captivity has an identifiable effect on the shape of the calcaneus, a tarsal [foot] bone that plays a propulsive role in locomotion. This bone is well preserved in archaeological contexts, which makes it possible to obtain information about the earliest placing of wild animals in captivity." Source: Science Daily.

Captivity caused changes in the muscles attached to the boar's foot bones, making the animals slower but stronger at the same time:

"This modification is caused by changes in the animal's lifestyle, since the bone is reshaped as a result of its movement, the terrain, and muscle stress ... It appears that a captive lifestyle turned them from 'long-distance runners' into 'bodybuilders'."

This study shows how changes in an animal's lifestyle can cause morphological changes, i.e. transformations in the shape and structure of its body. I have to wonder what changes humans have gone through over the millennia as a result of our own domestication. We used to be wild animals as well, after all.

Note: Humans were domesticating wild pigs back in the Stone Age. We've been hunting these dangerous animals for thousands of years and they appear in the mythology of several different cultures.

"Humans have been hunting boar for millennia, with the earliest artistic depictions of such activities dating back to the Upper Paleolithic. The animal was seen as a source of food among the Ancient Greeks, as well as a sporting challenge and source of epic narratives. The Romans inherited this tradition, with one of its first practitioners being Scipio Aemilianus. Boar hunting became particularly popular among the young nobility during the 3rd century BC as preparation for manhood and battle. A typical Roman boar hunting tactic involved surrounding a given area with large nets, then flushing the boar with dogs and immobilizing it with smaller nets. The animal would then be dispatched with a venabulum, a short spear with a crossguard at the base of the blade." (Wikipedia)

Shooting wild boars from a distance with assault rifles, night vision and thermal gear is one thing, but hunting these beasts with dogs, nets and spears must have been incredibly dangerous.

The Temple Of Rats In India

This is the Karni Mata Temple, aka the Temple of Rats, in Rajasthan, India.  According to Wikipedia, the Hindu temple to the deity / female warrior sage, Karni Mata, is famous for "the approximately 25,000 black rats that live, and are revered, in the temple. These holy rats are called kabbas, and many people travel great distances to pay their respects. The temple draws visitors from across the country for blessings, as well as curious tourists from around the world." There are also a few white rats living there and they are considered to be "manifestations of Karni Mata herself and her four sons." This makes the white rats ultra-holy.

The videos above show various food offerings made to the rats at the temple. In the top video, one worshiper is shown drinking straight from a bowl of milk set out for the sacred vermin. He claims that this is good for his health even though the milk is full of rat droppings. And this kind of lunatic behavior isn't unusual:

"The rodents move freely within the temple and can be seen eating from a huge metal bowl of milk and grains, placed there daily by devotees." Source: Daily Mail (2014).

"Small children can be seen playing and interacting with the rats - while scores of tourists flock there each day to catch a glimpse of the unique spectacle.

"Many visitors offer sweets and other candy to the vermin. The food nibbled by the rats is also considered holy and is sometimes consumed by a devotee - even if it has been half eaten by rodents."

Hindus believe that humans and animals are related through the cycles of reincarnation. We may have been animals in a previous life and we might end up coming back as animals in our next life, depending on our karma. "Humans and animals are believed to be one family and therefore, humans should treat all living creatures with respect and kindness." (Wikipedia)

Fine. I'm against animal abuse myself but worshiping rats, letting them run wild and sharing their food is flat-out disgusting. This temple is a major health hazard:

"Rats serve as outstanding vectors for transmittance of diseases because they can carry bacteria and viruses in their systems. A number of bacterial diseases are common to rats, and these include Streptococcus pneumoniae [causes pneumonia and meningitis in children and the elderly], Corynebacterium kutsheri, Bacillus piliformis [has been known to cause Tyzzer's disease in humans], Pasteurella pneumotropica, and Streptobacillus moniliformis, to name a few. All of these bacteria are disease causing agents in humans. In some cases, these diseases are incurable." (Wikipedia)

As far as I can tell, rodents are only worshiped in India. It's strange to think that this sacred animal is also responsible for wreaking havoc in the country:

"Twice a century, India is attacked by huge rat armies that devour crops in massive destructive waves and leave people without any food. Scientists long dismissed it as an urban myth...until they discovered that it really happens, and why." Source: Gizmodo (2010).

This is a weird situation. On the one hand, rats are worshiped in India; on the other hand, the country is carrying out pest control measures designed to keep the rat population under control, if not eradicate them altogether. Every fifty years these rat swarms wipe out crops, cause widespread famine and "wreak havoc on the entire ecosystem." (Gizmodo) This periodic disaster is called Mautum and it causes serious problems:

"Mautam (Mizo for 'bamboo death') is a cyclic ecological phenomenon that occurs every 48–50 years in the northeastern Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur, which are 30% covered by wild bamboo forests, as well as Chin State in Myanmar, particularly Hakha, Thantlang, Falam, Paletwa, and Matupi Towships. It begins with a rat population boom, which in turn creates a widespread famine in those areas." (Wikipedia)

As nasty as it is, the Temple of Rats at least serves a religious purpose. In the West a lot of people keep rats as pets and prattle on about how adorable they are. This is also kind of crazy, but at least these people don't eat and drink out of their rats' food bowls. Maybe I'm just being narrow-minded about this, but as far as I'm concerned rats aren't just unhygienic; they're downright evil.

The best sources for reliable information about the true nature of rats can be found in the books of the noted rodent experts, James Herbert and H.P. Lovecraft. The next video, a news clip from 1982, shows the devastation caused by rats in the New York subway system. This is real footage. Some skeptics claim that the rats are just wiener dogs dressed up in rat costumes, but that's ridiculous.

New Evidence Supports Early Domestication Of Dogs

Video from 2012.

"Analysis of Paleolithic-era teeth from a 28,500-year-old fossil site in the Czech Republic provides supporting evidence for two groups of canids -- one dog-like and the other wolf-like - with differing diets, which is consistent with the early domestication of dogs." Source: Science Daily.

Note: "The domestication of animals commenced over 15,000 years before present (YBP), beginning with the grey wolf (Canis lupus) by nomadic hunter-gatherers. It was not until 11,000 YBP that people living in the Near East entered into relationships with wild populations of aurochs, boar, sheep, and goats. A domestication process then began to develop. The grey wolf most likely followed the commensal pathway to domestication. When, where, and how many times wolves may have been domesticated remains debated because only a small number of ancient specimens have been found, and both archaeology and genetics continue to provide conflicting evidence. The most widely accepted, earliest dog remains date back 15,000 YBP to the Bonn–Oberkassel dog [next video]. Earlier remains dating back to 30,000 YBP have been described as Paleolithic dogs, however their status as dogs or wolves remains debated. Recent studies indicate that a genetic divergence occurred between dogs and wolves 20,000-40,000 YBP, however this is the upper time-limit for domestication because it represents the time of divergence and not the time of domestication." (Wikipedia)

Earliest Stone Tools From Lomekwi 3, West Turkana

"Lomekwi 3 is the name of an archaeological site in Kenya where ancient stone tools have been discovered dating to 3.3 million years ago, which make them the oldest ever found." (Wikipedia)

"Around 20 well preserved artifacts have been dug up at Lomekwi 3 including anvils, cores, and flakes. An additional 130 artifacts were found on the surface. In one instance, Harmand's team was able to match a flake to its core, suggesting a hominin had made and discarded the tool at the site ... it appeared that the tool makers had purposely selected large, heavy blocks of strong stone, ignoring smaller blocks of the same material found in the area."

The archaeologists who made the discovery said that the artifacts were "clearly knapped and not the result of accidental fracture of rocks". Many alleged prehistoric tools just look like rocks, but in this case the knapping is unmistakeable (see next video). According to Wikipedia, "[t]his is the greatest expression of late Neogene technology in human evolutionary history."

Video from 2015. Closed-captions useful.

Note: These tools weren't made by Homo Sapiens. According to Wikipedia, "The date predates the genus Homo by 500,000 years, suggesting this tool making was undertaken by Australopithecus or Kenyanthropus (which was found near Lomekwi 3)."

Australopithecus was a small primate, three to five feet tall, with a brain about the size of a chimpanzee. Kenyanthropus may have been a species of Australopithecus. If they crafted these stone tools deliberately, they must have had some degree of consciousness and self-awareness. After all, making a tool requires intent and the ability to think through problems, but "the purpose of the tools found at Lomekwi 3 is unclear, as animal bones found at the site do not bear any sign of hominin activity." (Wikipedia)

18,000-Year-Old Puppy Found In Eastern Russia / Paleolithic Dog Tracks & Mummies

"The male puppy with its arrow-head milky teeth was less than two months old when it died. It was found in summer 2018 inside a lump of a frozen ground near Indigirka River, north-east of Yakutsk. Its full body, muzzle, and even whiskers and eyelashes have been preserved by permafrost." Source: Ancient Origins.

"The reason for the puppy’s death has not been determined yet, although its position did not suggest distress, unlike the previously discovered Tumat puppies [next video]."

Video from 2016.

Note: These aren't the only ancient mummified dogs (or wolves -- it's unclear in some cases) that have been found over the years:

"There are a number of recently discovered specimens which are proposed as being Paleolithic dogs, however their taxonomy is debated. These have been found in either Europe or Siberia and date 40,000-17,000 YBP. They include Hohle Fels in Germany, Goyet Caves in Belgium, Predmosti in the Czech Republic, and four sites in Russia: Razboinichya Cave in the Altai Republic, Kostyonki-8, Ulakhan Sular in the Sakha Republic, and Eliseevichi 1 on the Russian plain. Paw-prints from Chauvet Cave in France [next video] dated 26,000 YBP are suggested as being those of a dog, however these have been challenged as being left by a wolf." (Wikipedia)

Dog or wolf tracks described beginning at 2:55.

Dogs First Domesticated In Europe? (2013)

"A new [2013] study in the journal Science argues that the domestication of dogs happened between 18,800 and 32,100 years ago in Europe. They say European hunter-gatherer cultures were responsible for turning lupine foes into best friends, long before humans developed agriculture." Source: CNN (2013).

"It's a conclusion that barks up a controversial tree. The study goes against the idea wolves were domesticated when they wandered over to human agricultural settlements, lured by food. The study also contradicts previous research suggesting that dog domestication may have first happened in the Middle East or East Asia."

Note: According to an alternate theory described in the 2011 video below, wolves (more specifically, a certain type of wolf) domesticated themselves as a response to contact with early human settlements.

Domesticated Dogs May Have Evolved Separately In Europe And Asia (2016)

"A canine conundrum solved? Domestic dogs emerged from not one, but two wolf families at opposite ends of Eurasia, according to fresh evidence." Source: New Scientist (2016).

"Debate has raged for years over whether man’s best friend came from Europe or Asia, with genetic studies finding conflicting results.

"But it appears that both camps may be right. An analysis of modern and ancient DNA has revealed a deep split in the family tree of European and Asian dogs."

Modern European Dog Has A Single Geographic Origin? (2017)

This 2012 video mentions the theory that wolves domesticated themselves when they started to prowl around human settlements, looking for food to scavenge.

"By analyzing the DNA of two prehistoric dogs from Germany, an international research team has determined that their genomes were the probable ancestors of modern European dogs. The finding suggests a single domestication event of modern dogs from a population of gray wolves that occurred between 20,000 and 40,000 years ago." Source: Science Daily (2017).

Note: It's still unclear whether dogs were first domesticated in Europe or Asia or both, but this study suggests that wolves and dogs probably diverged earlier than previously thought:

According to Nature (2017), "[t]he latest research offers a little clarity on the timing of domestication and on the dual or single origin question. [Researchers] studied genomes from Neolithic dog fossils found in different parts of Germany — one from the start of the period, 7,000 years ago, and one from 4,700 years ago. They also looked at data from a 5,000-year-old dog specimen found in Ireland. The team then compared these ancient genome sequences with genetic data from 5,649 canids, including modern dogs and wolves.

"The researchers estimate that dogs and wolves diverged genetically between 36,900 and 41,500 years ago, and that eastern and western dogs split 17,500–23,900 years ago. Because domestication had to have happened between those events, the team puts it somewhere from 20,000 to 40,000 years ago."

First Dogs Were Young, Curious Wolves?

Note: The idea here is that the first domesticated dogs may have been wolf pups still naturally curious about their surroundings. Dogs, in other words, may be wolves who never grew up. This process is called neotony:

"Neoteny, also called juvenilization, is the delaying or slowing of the physiological (or somatic) development of an organism, typically an animal." (Wikipedia)

This process also happens in humans.

Stone Age Artists Obsessed With Horses

"Stone Age occupants of Europe had a strange fixation on horses. Almost one in every three animals they depicted on cave walls was a horse and the images are often larger and occupy more prominent positions than those of other animals. However, why the horse loomed so large in ancient minds may remain forever a mystery." Source: New Scientist (subscription access only).

According to Wired (2011), "Archeologists have found more than 100 painted caves depicting at least 4,000 animals in Europe, nearly all of them concentrated in southern France and northern Spain. They include France's Chauvet Cave, dated to at least 32,000 years ago and featuring the earliest known cave art, as well as the roughly 15,000-year-old caves of Lascaux in France and Altamira in Spain. Nearly a third of the animals in painted caves are horses; and nearly all of the horses are rendered in brown or black, similar to the bay or black colors of today's horses."

Some of these paintings included images of spotted white horses found in the Pech Merle cave in France.

Until recently, experts thought that these horses didn't exist in the real world because "ancient DNA analyses suggested horses during the Stone Age were only black or bay colored with no evidence for white-spotted patterns. This hinted that cave paintings of leopard-patterned horses were fantasy, not accurate portrayals. Some have proposed that drawings of imaginary animals might have had some kind of symbolic or even religious value." (Live Science, 2011)

This assumption turned out to be incorrect, however:

"The paintings 'Dappled Horses of Pech Merle', approximately 25,000 years old, depict spotted horses that look remarkably similar to the leopard pattern common in modern Appaloosas. Archaeologists have debated over whether the artists were painting real horses they had observed or whether the spotting had some symbolic meaning. A 2011 study using the DNA of ancient horses, however, found that the leopard complex, which is involved in leopard spotting, was present, and concluded that the cave painters most likely did see real spotted horses." (Wikipedia)