archaeology.

Rupert Taylor-Price, Flickr Archaeologists have done it again, turning up more clues about the history of dogs in the American West. This time, they've found evidence of the close bond between the Central Valley Indian tribes of California and their canine companions. Paul Langenwalter, a professor of archaeology and anthropology at Biola University in La Miranda, Calif., found that the Indians buried their dogs with care, the Sacramento Bee reports. Langenwalter studied dog bones that date back to the 1700s and reviewed historical accounts of Europeans' contact with the Indian tribes. He found dogs were buried curled up in a sleeping position and placed in graves next to their ...

TheGiantVermin, Flickr While analyzing archaeological remains from Southwest Texas, a University of Maine graduate student has discovered evidence of the oldest-known dog in the Americas. Samuel Belknap was studying ancient human waste to determine what residents of the Lower Pecos region of Texas ate between 1,000 and 10,000 years ago when he found a fingernail-size bit of bone. DNA analysis confirmed it belongs to a domestic dog that lived approximately 9,400 years ago, the Associated Press reports. According to UCLA professor Robert Wayne, North America's first mutts are thought to have arrived with early settlers who crossed the Bering land bridge from Asia 10,000 years ago or more. ...

Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities / AP We know some cat people who worship their pets, but nothing like this. Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a 2,200-year-old temple dedicated to the ancient Egyptian cat goddess Bastet. According to Discovery News, the temple, measuring 200 feet in height and 49 feet in width, probably belonged to Queen Berenike II, the wife of king Ptolemy III. The cat goddess was worshipped in the ancient city of Bubastis, which featured a cemetery of mummified cats. Bastet started out as a lion goddess, then later became a domestic cat goddess with a cult centered in Bubastis. The Supreme Council of Antiquities released a statement saying, "This ...