This story originally appeared in SAPIENS, an online magazine focused on anthropology.
In the Siberian Arctic, the Ob River flows lazily across vast, cold stretches of tundra. In the city of Salekhard, Russia, where it meets with the Polui River, lie the remains of an ancient ritual site. Overlooking the floodplains, it is known as Ust’-Polui. It is thought to date back to 260 B.C. and to have been occupied until A.D. 140. The site has long fascinated archaeologists due to the huge number and diversity of bone remains and artifacts present. Preserved by permafrost, they tell the story of a site with special importance to ancient Siberian communities.
One team of researchers has turned to a little-studied aspect of the site: the unusual number of dog remains. Complete skeletons or parts from at least 128 dogs have been identified since it was first excavated in 1935. “Nowhere else in the Arctic do we find so many dog remains at one site,” says Robert Losey, an anthropologist at the University of Alberta in Canada. “It’s intriguing enough to want to go retrace the relationship between these animals and the ancient inhabitants of Ust’-Polui.”
