Dogs, jaws, and other stories: Two symbolic objects made of dog mandibles from southeastern Europe

Abstract

The relationship between people and dogs has its beginnings in the Palaeolithic and extends to contemporary times. This paper explores the role of dogs in Eneolithic communities from the Balkans, with a particular focus on two dog mandibles which were discovered in House No. 14 at Sultana-Malu Roşu (ca. 4600 – 3950 b.c.) in Romania. The two artifacts belong to different excavation levels. The first mandible was identified in the foundation trench which marks the beginning of the house's lifecycle; the second was found in the abandonment level of the house, marking the end of its lifecycle. Archaeozoological, technological and functional analyses demonstrate the unique character of these prehistoric artifacts, telling the stories of those who used, sacrificed and abandoned them.

Keywords:

• Eneolithic
• southeastern Europe
• dog mandible
• synecdoche
• Gumelniţa

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Ciprian Astaloș for improving the English translation of this paper and Florian Mihail who has offered us the unpublished data about the hard animal material industry from the Carcaliu, Luncavița and Taraschina sites. The manuscript benefitted from the valuable comments of three anonymous reviewers. This work was supported by two grants from the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research, CNCS–UEFISCDI, project numbers PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-1015 and PN-II-RU-TE-2011-3-0133.