The Trallei dog is the oldest brachycephalic dog found in the world.
Fresh according to research, the ancient Romans already bred short-nosed and blunt-faced dogs that had breathing problems.
The research focused on the remains of a dog that lived approximately 2,000 years ago, which were found in an archaeological dig in a grave in the ancient city of Tralleis in 2007.
Tralleis is located in what is now Western Turkey, but during the dog’s lifetime, the city belonged to the Roman Empire. A more detailed examination of the dog’s remains began in 2021.
The investigations revealed that the dog had been small and had been treated well. It seems that the dog has been kept as a pet.
Based on the teeth, the animal had just grown to full size before it died. The dog may have been killed as part of its owner’s funeral expenses.
Of the current ones of the dog breeds, the animal most closely resembled the French Bulldog, with a short muzzle and skull. Such a head shape is called brachycephalic.
On the website of the Finnish Kennel Club it is said that brachycephaly is not a condition that occurs normally in animals, but the result of a human effort to strengthen the desired physical characteristics.
The Trallei dog is the oldest brachycephalic dog found in the world.
The remains of only one brachycephalic dog have previously been found during the Roman Empire. The discovery was made in the city of Pompeii in Italy, which was destroyed by a volcanic eruption. Pompeii was buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD, and the earliest “beware of the dog” inscription in history has been found there. The text is in a mosaic where the depicted dog has a long snout.
The Romans may have been the first to breed dogs with short heads and muzzles.
Too a short muzzle endangers the normal functioning of the respiratory and thermoregulatory system and exposes the animals to serious health problems. According to the Kennel Club, Cambridge University studies have found that only ten percent of brachycephalic dogs breathe normally.
There are other remains of dogs from the Roman Empire, but they were working dogs, and based on the remains, they were not treated well when they lived.
A study of the dog of Tralleis by researchers from several Turkish universities was published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports –in a scientific publication.
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