‘Well-preserved’5,000-year-old dog buried with bone dagger unearthed in ancient bog

Archaeologists have unearthed an “exceptionally well-preserved” dog skeleton from theStone Age— laid to rest alongside a 5,000-year-old dagger.

The discovery, announced by Arkeologerna, a Swedish archaeological consultancy, is centered around a site near Järna, southwest of Stockholm.

Arkeologerna worked with its parent organization, Sweden’sNational Historical Museums(SHM), during the excavation, which took place ahead of railway construction last fall.

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“Several thousand years ago, the 3,500-square-meter [37,700-square-feet] area looked very different,” the release said.

“At that time, the bog was a shimmering lake used for fishing.”

Archaeologists in Sweden uncovered an exceptionally well-preserved Stone Age dog burial site — containing a finely polished bone dagger dating back roughly 5,000 years.(Arkeologerna, SHM)

The dog was “deliberately” deposited with thebone dagger, which officials said was just under 10 inches long and was finely polished. 

It was likely made fromelk or red deerbone.

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Officials described the dog as a “large and powerful male.” He was between three and six years old when he died.

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Officials say the dog was deliberately deposited in a lake near present-day Jarna, southwest of Stockholm, during the early Neolithic period.(Arkeologerna, SHM)

“Dog burials from early Neolithic times are very rare,” said Hagberg. 

“A couple of thousand years earlier, during the Mesolithic, dog burials appear on burial grounds and on settlements, but they were not common in those days either.”

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Researchers believe that the dog’s skull was crushed when it died, as opposed to being crushed during the burial.

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The bones survived the millennia because they were deposited in water — and Hagberg described their good conditionas “rare as well.”

Officials said the waterlogged conditions helped preserve the dog’s bones for thousands of years.(Arkeologerna, SHM)

“The most surprising and unexpected event [of the excavation] was the finding of the deposited dog remains,” he said.“Without a doubt.”

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He also said that, while it’s impossible to describe the dog in terms ofmodern breeds, the dog was “relatively large, with broad jaws and big teeth.”

An excavation image shows the Swedish wetland where a 5,000-year-old dog burial was discovered, alongside the Fossum rock carvings in Sweden depicting prehistoric humans and animals.(Arkeologerna, SHM;iStock)

The discovery comes less than a year after archaeologists found anotherwell-preserved dog burialfrom ancient Rome.

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�quite well,” thanks to the calcareous sandstone under which it was buried.