Have you ever wondered how far back relationships between humans and dogs go? Well, it’s probably a lot further back than you’d think. Experts estimate that people have been domesticating dogs since anywhere from 12,000 to 33,000 years ago BC. Now, thanks to an excavated canine skull from a neolithic dog – and some pretty advanced technology – we now know what these canines may have looked like.

The neolithic dog skull was discovered in the ancient, evocative mound known as the Cuween Hill Chambered Cairn.

The cairn is located on the main island in Scotland’s Orkney archipelago and is estimated to have been constructed somewhere between 2,400 and 3,000 BC.

The cairn has four movable cells that pull out from a central column.

When it was excavated over a hundred years ago in 1901, 24 dog skulls were found preserved within the tomb, along with the skulls of eight humans. While we couldn’t really learn too much more about the tomb’s inhabitants back then, advancements in technology such as radio-carbon dating have allowed us to get a deeper glimpse into this millennia-long relationship between dogs and humans.

For instance, it was revealed that the dog skulls and bones were placed within the cairn over 500 years after it was first constructed.

This fact alone leads researchers to believe that the dog remains were added to the tomb as part of some ritualistic ceremony.

“Just as they’re treasured pets today, dogs clearly had an important place in Neolithic Orkney, as they were kept and trained as pets and guards and perhaps used by farmers to help tend sheep,” explains Steve Farrar, Historic Environment Scotland’s interpretation manager.

Historic Environment Scotland has partnered with National Museums Scotland to update the site interpretation panels located outside the tomb. As part of that project, last year researchers took a CT-scan of one of the dog skulls to create a 3-D print.

From there, the print of the skull was entrusted to the experienced hands of forensic artist and researcher, Amy Thornton.

Thornton used what she describes as “traditional methods” to build up the muscle and shape of the dog’s head before casting it in silicone. The talented artist then finished creating her real-life model by adorning the head with “skin” and fur resembling that of a European grey wolf, at the suggestion of researchers.

While previously it was thought that the Neolithic dogs of Scotland were much smaller, recent examination of the remains found at Cuween shows they were all roughly the size of a large Collie breed.

The end result of the facial reconstruction is stunning, to say the least.

According to Farrar, the reconstruction of the neolithic dog is the first of its kind, as far as HES knows.

“While reconstructions have previously been made of people from the Neolithic era, we do not know of any previous attempt to forensically reconstruct an animal from this time.

Looking at this dog helps us better relate to the people who cared for and venerated these animals, people whose ingenuity and sophistication made Orkney such an important place in the Neolithic and who have left us with such a rich legacy of monuments today,” he continues.

The actual dog skull used to create the replica is being housed at National Museums Scotland, where it will be revered and well cared for.

Thanks to the advances in technology and one very detail-oriented artist, we now have a greater understanding of our Neolithic canine pals across the pond.

To view an interactive 3-D map of the Cuween Hill chambered cairn, click play on the VR screen below.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland/National Museums Scotland

H/T: IFL Science