1,000-year-old burial reveals close bonds between people and dingoes

A dingo burial in what is now New South Wales shows ancient Barkindji people treating a dingo as a deeply valued community member. Ancestors buried a dingo, called garli, in a mound of river mussel shells with careful ceremony. Archaeological study found an elderly male dingo with worn teeth and possible arthritis, along with broken and healed bones indicating a hard life and human care. Shell layers around the skeleton indicate generations continued tending the grave and ritually “fed” the dingo by adding shells for centuries after death. The find is notable for its location farther north and west than other known examples, suggesting a long-lasting relationship between people and dingoes.

"Five years ago, Barkindji Elder Uncle Badger Bates and National Parks and Wildlife Service archaeologist Dan Witter saw bones eroding out of a road cut in Kinchega National Park, an area along the Baaka, or Darling River, in Western Australia. Badger recognized the bones as a dingo, lying on its left side in what was once a carefully built mound of river mussel shells."

"The bones turned out to belong to an elderly male dingo, with worn teeth and possible signs of arthritis. Broken and healed bones suggested that he'd lived a tough, active life but also been cared for by people. The layers of shells around him revealed that generations of Barkindji had tended his grave and ritually “fed” him by adding shells to the mound for centuries after his death."

"Archaeologists recently studied the burial in what's now New South Wales, Australia. They found that the Barkindji ancestors had buried the dingo with the same care and ceremony as any beloved human member of the community and looked after the grave for centuries. The burial reveals that dingoes were, as Australian Museum and University of Sydney archaeologist and study co-author Amy Way puts it, “deeply valued and loved” by ancient people in Australia."

Read at Ars Technica