Who Was the First Human to Save a Dog?

In 1914, quarry workers near Bonn in Germany dug into a grave of the last Ice Age: a man of around forty, a young woman in her twenties, both dusted with red ochre, and beside them the jaw of a small canid. In 2018, a veterinary surgeon and archaeologist looked at its teeth the way a vet looks at a patient, and found three lines in the enamel at 19, 21 and 23 weeks. The puppy had gone through canine distemper three times and lived about eight more weeks, because somebody nursed it. This is an archaeology and anthropology deep dive into the oldest proof of care between our species and another one. It could not hunt, could not guard and could not pay anybody back, and 14,200 years ago it went into the same grave as the people who kept it alive. So who was the first human being to save a dog? What You Will Learn in This Video: Three Lines In The Enamel - the Oberkassel puppy's teeth record illness at 19, 21 and 23 weeks, a disease that kills most untreated puppies in about three weeks (Janssens et al., Journal of Archaeological Science, 2018) Why Feeding A Dog Was Almost Free - past roughly a third of your energy from protein you get sick, so Ice Age hunters had surplus lean meat that could feed wolves and dogs without taking a meal from their own children (Lahtinen et al., Scientific Reports, 2021) 15,800 Years At Pinarbasi - whole genomes from Gough's Cave in England and Pinarbasi in Turkey push the genetic record of dogs back by roughly five thousand years (Nature, March 2026) Five Lineages By 11,000 Years Ago - 27 ancient dog genomes show at least five separate dog lineages across the world before farming spread (Bergstrom et al., Science, 2020) The Eyebrow Muscle Wolves Lack - dogs have the levator anguli oculi medialis that lifts the inner eyebrow, and shelter dogs that raise it more get adopted faster (Kaminski et al., PNAS, 2019; Waller et al., PLOS ONE, 2013) Eleven Dogs In Their Own Graves - at Skateholm in Sweden, about 7,000 years ago, one dog was buried with a red deer antler, a decorated antler hammer and three blades, the same way as a hunter Some dogs earned their place by working. The oldest one we can prove earned it by needing us. If you enjoy this kind of content, drop a like, and tell me in the comments the name of the dog you would have sat up all night for. Chapters: 0:00 A Dog Near You Right Now 0:52 The Oldest Dog Grave On Earth 1:51 Three Lines In The Teeth 2:23 Week By Week 3:51 The Story You Were Taught 4:05 Wolves That Tamed Themselves 4:40 A Puppy With No Use 5:29 How Could They Afford A Dog? 6:48 The DNA Study That Almost Took The Title 7:25 Five Lineages By 11,000 Years Ago 8:22 How Sure Can We Be? 8:49 The Record On Your Dog's Face 9:55 Belyaev's Foxes 10:15 A Loop That Runs Both Ways 11:05 A Hand On A Puppy 11:38 Eleven Dogs In Their Own Graves 12:26 The Answer 13:21 The Bowl On Your Floor Subscribe:    / @mindwire-yt   Business: mindwire.yt@gmail.com #AncientHumans #Archaeology #Dogs SOURCES: Janssens, L. et al. (2018). A new look at an old dog: Bonn-Oberkassel reconsidered. J. Archaeological Science 92: 126-138. Enamel lines at 19, 21, 23 weeks; repeated distemper; care. Hare, B. & Woods, V. (2020). Survival of the Friendliest. Self-domestication of wolves. Lahtinen, M. et al. (2021). Scientific Reports 11: 7. Surplus lean meat in Ice Age winters. Scarsbrook, L. et al. (2026). Nature, March. Dog genomes from Gough's Cave and Pinarbasi. Bergstrom, A. et al. (2020). Science 370: 557-564. 27 ancient dog genomes, five lineages. Kaminski, J. et al. (2019). PNAS 116: 14677-14681. The inner-brow muscle in dogs vs wolves. Waller, B. M. et al. (2013). PLOS ONE 8: e82686. Brow raises and faster rehoming. Nagasawa, M. et al. (2015). Science 348: 333-336. Oxytocin-gaze loop in owners and dogs. Belyaev, D. K. (1979). J. Heredity 70: 301-308. Silver fox experiment from 1959. Davis, S. J. M. & Valla, F. R. (1978). Nature 276: 608-610. Ain Mallaha puppy burial. Larsson, L. (1989). Skateholm dog graves with grave goods and red ochre.