Two related University of Liverpool/British Institute at Ankara archaeological excavation projects led by Professor Douglas Baird in central Anatolia (Türkiye), working with project zooarchaeologists from University College London, University of Liverpool and Türkiye and several ancient DNA and isotope teams (Natural History Museum, Oxford, York, Francis Crick Institute, and Munich), have identified some of the earliest dogs. This has changed our understanding of the development and spread of early domestic dogs, as documented in two papers published in the same issue of Nature (26 March 2026).
The two sites are Pınarbaşı, excavated with the Karaman Museum, and Boncuklu, excavated with Professor Fairbairn of the University of Queensland and Associate Professor Mustafaoğlu of Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University, which together span the transition from the Epipalaeolithic (latest Palaeolithic) to the early Neolithic, dated to 16000 to 10000 years ago. At the Epipalaeolithic rockshelter at Pınarbaşı, a mobile group camped regularly and buried their dead. They also buried dog puppies identified directly by this ancient DNA work, which are now the earliest dogs directly identified by their nuclear DNA (as opposed to other, more indirect indicators).
Dr William Marsh, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Natural History Museum and co-first author of the study, said: “The genetic identification of two Palaeolithic dogs from Gough’s Cave and Pınarbaşı represents a step-change in our understanding of the earliest dogs. These specimens allowed us to identify additional ancient dogs from sites in Germany, Italy and Switzerland, which clearly show that dogs were already widely dispersed across Europe and Türkiye by at least 14,000 years ago.”
Professor Baird, University of Liverpool says “The archaeology makes clear that these dogs were close companions of humans, isotope analysis showing the dogs ate fish, a major element of human diet and like humans were carefully buried in the rockshelter near humans, thereby receiving ritualised treatment analogous to the humans.” He also states: “These people hunted animals like wild sheep and dangerous wild cattle, so it seems likely that these animals were hunting, but also possibly guard dogs, given the presence of large predators like wolves and leopards in central Anatolia at that time”.
Excitingly, teams at the National History Museum, the University of Oxford and the University of Munich worked on ancient DNA from late Upper Palaeolithic canids in Gough’s Cave in the UK, at the far edge of Europe, as well as Pınarbaşı and identified a high degree of genetic similarity between Gough’s Cave and Pınarbaşı dogs. This suggests that this lineage of dogs dispersed quickly from one end of Europe to the other within a few centuries at most. At Gough’s Cave too, close relationships are suggested by similar treatments of dogs at death.
Intriguingly, these dogs spread across culturally and genetically different groups over long distances. Baird suggests this was “probably because of their value to human groups, but also certainly as parts of intergroup exchanges, along with their own agency”. The study published in the journal Nature also shows that these dogs were ancestral to modern European breeds.
The second paper, involving Liverpool work with Professor Fairbairn (University of Queensland) and Associate Professor Gökhan Mustafaoğlu (Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University), along with the ancient DNA lab at the Francis Crick Institute, identified domestic dog at Boncuklu, 30 kms from Pınarbaşı, dated to c 9000 BC at the beginning of the Holocene, the warm period following the end of the Ice Age. The inhabitants of Boncuklu were descendants of those who used Pınarbaşı, but during that period, they settled permanently in the wetlands and, in due course, adopted domesticated plants and began managing wild sheep in the hills near the site. Dogs at Boncuklu are also buried, but in this case, they are actually buried directly alongside humans. In this context, they may well have played a role as hunting and guard dogs, but also may have been involved in early sheep herding.
The first farmers to appear in Europe spread from western Anatolia 2500 years later than the initial occupation of Boncuklu. The first European farmers were genetically related to the Boncuklu population. They took Anatolian dogs with them, who also spread westward with farmers. This study interestingly shows that these Anatolian-derived Neolithic dogs interbred with the dogs of local/indigenous Mesolithic populations to a greater degree than the incoming Anatolian-derived farming populations, again showing the way in which dogs were valued to a degree that overcame cultural boundaries and also suggesting the significant extent to which they operated with their own agency.
The excavation projects at Pınarbaşı and Boncuklu are sponsored by the British Institute at Ankara. Other major funders of these projects have included the British Academy, Gerda Henkel Stiftung, Australian Research Council, Arts and Humanities Research Council, National Geographic, Wainwright Fund Oxford, IFRGlobal. The excavation team would like to thank the Karaman and Konya museums, as well as the Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums in Türkiye, for their support. These projects are team efforts, involving students, excavators and specialists whose hard work underpins these results.