Dr. Robert Losey presents guest lecture at UBCO
November 1, 2015
Dr. Robert Losey recently presented a guest lecture about archaeological research on dogs in Siberia at the University of British Columbia Okanagan.
His lecture was entitled "The Archaeology of Living with Dogs in the North" and got rave reviews from all attending!
Abstract: Most archaeological research on dogs focuses on understanding the timing and places of their initial domestication. Arguably, however, these projects tell us very little about the actual lives of these past dogs and the ways in which their lives were intertwined with those of people. Our project (http://dogarchaeology.org/) focuses on understanding the lives of ancient dogs in Siberia, including their emotional bonds and working lives with people. This talk will describe some of our research on dog burial practices, the prehistory of sled pulling and burden carrying, and dog diets and feeding practices. These studies help to demonstrate how theories on human-animal socialization can be com-bined with empirical methods to produce a rich and compelling account about Siberia's multi-species communities.
