Pages: 215-230

Some of the early Upper Palaeolithic canids were lately identified as dogs. However, there are no sufficient reasons to abandon a traditional view that the oldest dogs should be dated to the very end of the Upper Palaeolithic about 13,000 years ago. The genetically-based conclusions about the existence of a single wolf domestication center in either Central Asia or South-East China are erroneous. The available evidence testifies to the existence of at least two and maybe three independent centers of wolf domestication. One of them existed in the Middle East, the other in Western Europe. It is possible also that the eastern part of Asia should be considered as a third center of wolf domestication.

Keywords: Eurasia, Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, wolf domestication, center of domestication

Information about author:

Victor Sergin (Moscow, Russian Federation). Doctor of Historical Sciences. Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Dmitry Ulyanov St., 19. Moscow, 117036, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]