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Dogs have been a constant of the human condition for thousands of years. Footprints of a young child and canine dated to 26,000 years ago have been found in the Chauvet Cave in France, showing them walking side by side, and, long before then, and ever since, humans and dogs have maintained that same relationship.
Where and when dogs were first domesticated is still debated, but the oldest artistic depiction of the dog on a leash – and possibly with a collar – dates to 8,000 years ago in the region of Shuwaymis in modern-day northeastern Saudi Arabia. In attaching a leash to one's dog's collar today, one is participating in a basic human activity going back to a time before the Pyramids of Giza were raised or Newgrange was built.
This gallery presents a few images of dogs through the ages from ancient Mesopotamia up through the modern day, and, as one can see, the relationship between humans and dogs has changed very little.
Gula
by The Trustees of the British Museum
published on 18 January 2017
Impression of a Babylonian blue chalcedony conical stamp seal from c. 700-550 BCE.
On the base, beneath a crescent, a worshipper in a fringed robe stands facing the goddess of healing, Gula, who sits on her star-studded throne which rests on her reclining dog; she raises one hand, and in the other, she holds a ring and the dog's lead.
