Trauma and pathology of a buried dog from San Nicolas Island, California, U.S.A

• Published in: Journal of archaeological science 2010-11, Vol.37 (11), p.2721-2734
• Main Authors: Bartelle, Barney G., Vellanoweth, René L., Netherton, Elizabeth S., Poister, Nicholas W., Kendig, William E., Ainis, Amira F., Glenn, Ryan J., Marty, Johanna V., Thomas-Barnett, Lisa, Schwartz, Steven J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: America and Arctic regions; Dog burial; Dog osteology; Dog trauma; Domestic dog; Generalities; North America; Prehistoric dog pathology; Prehistory and protohistory; San Nicolas island
• ISSN: 0305-4403; 1095-9238
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2010.06.008

To date more intact dog remains have been found on San Nicolas than on any of the other seven California Channel Islands. However, little is known about them. During the 2007 summer field season we excavated a medium sized young male dog in a flexed burial position from a pit at CA-SNI-25, a large Native American village site. The dog exhibits hypodontia, noticeable tooth attrition, severe scapular trauma, and vertebral, rib, and phalanx pathologies. Most of the injuries appear to have resulted from a severe blunt force trauma of unknown origin and it is likely the dog would not have survived without human care. The results of our analysis contribute to the, somewhat limited, published data on archaeological dogs in California. In this paper we describe the biological characteristics of the dog especially his anomalies and pathologies and compare them with published reports of other North American archaeological dogs with similar conditions.