Presented by James Serpell. University of Pennsylvania, 2014 ISAZ conference Vienna, Austria
Companion animals or “pets” have a long history that precedes the domestication of animals. The earliest evidence of a probable human-pet relationship dates from the 17,000 – 14,000 year old site of Uyun al-Hamman in Jordan. The animal involved was neither a wolf or a wildcat, but a fox (Vulpes vulpes). whose remains were found in a human grave. Later buriel sites (c. 12,000 years BP) in Israel contained the remains of early wolf/dogs, while the earliest human-cat buriels, dating from roughly 9,500 BP, have been found on the Mediterranean Island of Cyprus. Since these early beginnings, the practice of keeping animals primarily or exclusively for companionship has waxed and waned throughout human history – popular and widespread in some cultures and periods, and rare or tabooed in others.
